Idyllic Dystopia
by awintea
Summary: Ryoma, after disappearing from Japan for over two years, returns as if no time had lapsed in between. He meets up with the others, but they all can't help but suspect that something is different.
1. Prelude

Idyllic Dystopia

A chapter story! And I dedicate this fanfic to the lovely Chocolate Confection (or KatYouKai), who jinxed me. xD I had written this story a while back, but never really gotten around to posting it... But I decided to post it today since I had nothing better to do... except study for an exam.

I don't own any part of Prince of Tennis. No cute tennis boys, no crazy fangirls, no schools, nada. xD That all belongs to Konomi Takeshi.

Please read then. xD This is AU-ish.

x Prelude

_Why had it become like this?_

x

'That Echizen...He's going to make me late for school.'

Takeshi Momoshiro stood outside the Echizen residence, waiting by the door for his best friend to come out. Nobody had answered when he rang the doorbell... He decided to give Echizen five more minutes. But only five, or he really _would _be late.

x

'Momoshiro. Where's Echizen?' Tezuka Kunimitsu asked sternly, who could not spot the freshman regular anywhere on the Seigaku tennis courts.

Momo turned to face his buchou, and replied, 'There was no one at his home. At least, nobody answered the door.'

'...Ah.'

Momo turned back to his opponent, Kikumaru Eiji, who was pouting. 'I haven't hugged ochibi all day!'

Momo laughed heartily and served.

x

'Hey! Sakuno! Have you seen Ryoma-sama?' Osakada Tomoka asked her friend hopefully.

Ryuzaki Sakuno looked up from her bento and shook her head. 'Sorry, Tomo-chan...' She wondered to herself if he was sick. Ryoma probably wouldn't skip...right?

'He's probably skipping!' Horio Satoshi said matter-of-factly, in the voice that he used when he talked about his two years of tennis experience. 'There was an assignment due today, and he probably didn't finish it.'

'As if _you _would know! Ryoma-sama wouldn't skip!' Tomoka glared at Horio, who shivered. 'I bet _you _were the one who didn't finish it anyway!'

As Tomoka and Horio started bickering, Sakuno ate her bento silently, hoping that Ryoma would come back to school soon, and that there wasn't anything wrong.

x

But Ryoma didn't come back.

The regulars had gone to the Echizen residence later, after Ryoma hadn't shown up at school for three days.

It had been empty. All the furniture was gone. There was no evidence that anybody had even lived there.

The regulars were shocked. There had been nothing leading up to the leaving of the Echizens. Ryoma hadn't said anything.

They had simply left, leaving no trace.

x

Inui had searched everything he could get his hands on, but could only find one clue - an obituary for Echizen Nanjiroh, who had died from a car crash the week before, which stated that the Echizens had held a private funeral.

It didn't explain why the Echizens had left though.

x

The next week, the principal told the regulars that Echizen Ryoma wasn't coming back to Seishun Gakuen Junior High School, and might not even come back to Japan.

The principal also relayed a message from Ryoma to them: 'Win the Nationals, senpai-tachi.'

They fulfilled this request, in hopes that doing so would bring Ryoma back. They realized that they all missed their rude cocky brat.

But even after Seigaku Middle School won the nationals, Ryoma was still nowhere to be seen.

x

It had been over two years.

x

A short individual stared out into the storm. His blackish green hair stuck out from beneath his cap and covered his hazel eyes that were watching raindrops roll down the taxi window. His hand was unconsciously stroking the Himalayan cat in his lap, which was purring contentedly, unaware of his master's troubled thoughts.

The woman who sat beside him asked anxiously, 'Are you fine, Ryoma?'

Ryoma's only reply to his mother, Rinko, was a brief nod in her direction. Then, he turned back to face the window and pet Karupin, his cat, some more.

'I'm sure all of your friends will be happy to see you again. They must have missed you a lot. You'll have to contact them.' Rinko-san looked over at her son, who was still staring out the window.

She continued, 'I enrolled you in Seishun Gakuen High School, so you might be able to see your friends then.'

When her son still didn't respond, she sighed. 'Well, we're here. We're staying at Nanako's apartment for now, okay?'

Rinko opened the door and got out of the taxi. She went to the other side to help Ryoma out, holding the door wide open. She held out her hand for Ryoma to use as support.

'I'm fine, mom.' Ryoma pulled himself out of the taxi with one hand on the door, one hand holding Karupin, and went to the trunk to get his luggage.

'It's okay, Ryoma! I'll get these. You go on in first, and find out which floor Nanako lives on.'

Ryoma nodded and brought him and Karupin up to the apartment

x

Ryoma couldn't help but marvel at the magnificence of Nanako's apartment. It seemed extremely rich. He wondered at what Nanako was doing for a job. He went up to the man at the counter, who was looking at Karupin with distaste. Ryoma already felt himself disliking the man. Karupin was a very respectable, intelligent, Himalayan cat, and didn't deserve to be glared at.

Ryoma asked bluntly, 'Could you tell me what floor and what room Meino Nanako live in?'

The man's eyebrows raised. 'Are you related to Meino-san?'

'I'm her cousin.'

'She lives on the floor 22, in room 17.' The man stared at him for a moment, as if he wasn't the type of person to be related to Nanako, who was kind and polite to everyone.

'Thanks.' Ryoma went to the door, where his mother was waiting. 'Floor 22, room 17.'

'Ah, thank you, Ryoma. Go push the elevator button for me? My hands are kind of full.' Both of Ryoma's mother's hands had one large suitcase in them

Ryoma obliged and went to the elevator, pushing the circular button, making it glow slightly. Shortly, it opened to reveal -

'Echizen?' The young man's dark blue eyes widened, not sure of what he was seeing. He brushed a few light brown locks away from his eyes, and blinked, to make sure that the person in front of him was really there. He had to be imagining things.

'...Who are you?'

x

So did you like it? Please review xD Flames welcome, and criticism even more so. -awinchan


	2. Unexpected Rendezvous

Idyllic Dystopia

Here is the first chapter! xD It's around the same length as my prologue, but oh well. xD

No, I don't own PoT.

And this is AU. xD A warning ahead of time, in case you didn't read the summary.

x Unexpected Rendezvous

'_Echizen_?' The young man gaped.

'Who are you?' Ryoma asked rudely, glaring at the young man who was staring intensely at him. Was he supposed to recognize him? Ryoma searched his mind for any recognition of said person, and could find nothing. But the brunette seemed to know Ryoma some how...

'Ryoma, do you know him?' Rinko looked curiously at the young man, who blinked again. She knew him from somewhere, but she wasn't sure exactly. From a newspaper, perhaps?

'No.' Ryoma held Karupin just a bit closer, as if keeping Karupin safe from the stranger, who seemed rather suspicious. 'Not at all.' Karupin meowed as Ryoma petted him gently, with a smile on his face.

He then scowled at the young man, who was still standing in the elevator, and Ryoma said carelessly, 'Can you please move? You're in our way.'

The young man didn't move though. He simply stared at Ryoma, and seemed strangely shocked to see him there.

Then, somebody came rushing in through the apartment doors, shouting, 'Atobe-sama! Do you need any help? Who is that?'

The young man held up a hand elegantly as he got out of the elevator. 'I'm fine. Just get the limo.'

Ryoma paused for a moment. Atobe? And then it hit him. 'Monkey King.'

Atobe Keigo smirked. 'Brat.'

'Ryoma!' Rinko said, with surprise. 'So you do know him?' Ryoma had smiled. It had been for just a fraction of a second, but it had been a smile at someone other than Karupin. Coming back to Japan had been the right decision then...

'Nobody important, kaa-san. Let's go.' Ryoma pulled down his cap a bit, and stepped into the elevator. He pushed the 'Open' button, and waited for Rinko to get in.

She was conflicted, not knowing whether to go and follow said Monkey King (who looked highly affronted) and find out more about him, or follow her son, who was already looking irritated. She stepped into the elevator, and pushed '22'.

As the elevator rose, Rinko started questioning her son. 'So what's his name?'

'Monkey King,' Ryoma replied immediately, scowling.

Rinko smiled. 'No, his real name.'

Ryoma thought for a second, before replying, '...Atobe...Keigo, I think.'

'Atobe? As in the Atobe company?' Rinko stared at her son, whose face was once again completely blank.

'Probably. He's rich.'

The elevator door opened, and Ryoma got out. He found Nanako's room and rang the doorbell.

Within five seconds, Nanako opened the door and grinned widely, enveloping Ryoma in a gentle hug. Ryoma frowned a bit at the attention, but didn't push Nanako away.

'Ryoma-san! I've missed you so much!' Then, she caught sight of Rinko, who was dragging the suitcases along. She let go gingerly and then went to Rinko. 'Auntie, let me help you with those. Ryoma-san, you go and sit down. You too, auntie. You must be tired from the trip.' Nanako grabbed the suitcases and brought them in.

Ryoma glanced around Nanako's large apartment, and chose a couch to sit on. He closed his eyes, already exhausted.

x

Atobe Keigo was at a loss for words. Echizen Ryoma was back? Did his old teammates know? He put his head in his hands, wondering where Echizen had gone for over two years.

Atobe had never even had a proper match with him.

As he got off his limousine and into the restaurant, he decided that he would stay in his penthouse at that apartment more often, regardless of its small size, to try and catch a glimpse of that cocky brat again.

x

'Ryoma-san, there's breakfast cooking.'

Ryoma opened his eyes groggily to see a smiling Nanako. 'Morning.' He got up from the couch he had been sleeping in. 'Did I fall asleep?'

'Yup. We didn't want to move you, in case we disturbed your sleep. Do you need help over to the table?' Nanako offered kindly.

Ryoma scowled. 'I'm fine.' He followed the smell of cooking food to a table, which had pancakes on it.

'Kaa-san, why isn't it a Japanese breakfast?' Ryoma frowned at the nicely cooked pancakes, with the slice of butter on top and syrup all over. He grabbed one (which burned his fingers a bit since it was hot) and took a bite out of it. It didn't taste right.

'I'm sorry. I promise there'll be one next time.' Rinko stopped cooking. 'Ryoma, why don't you go out today? I'm sure some fresh air will do you well.'

Ryoma simply nodded, and got up. 'I'll be back soon.' He adjusted his cap and left the room.

x

'You've been waiting here the whole morning?' Ryoma looked at Atobe, who was standing beside a limousine outside of the apartment, incredulously. 'What if I hadn't left the apartment?'

Atobe smirked. 'As if you would. After seeing my glorious face, it was obvious that you would come and look for me anyway. I just made the task easier for you.'

'Mada mada da ne, Monkey King.' Ryoma started walking away, but Atobe called him back.

'Where are you going, brat?'

'Out.'

Atobe said, 'Come with me to eat breakfast.' It wasn't an offer, but rather, an order.

'I ate already,' Ryoma said offhandedly.

'I'll pay.'

'Fine.'

x

Atobe stared at Ryoma, who was wolfing down his burger with, in Atobe's opinion, absolutely no dignity _at all_. Atobe was sitting on his chair gingerly, knowing very well that thousands of commoners had sat on the same chair before him. They might have even wiped their dirty hands on the seat.

He said, with distaste, 'How could you eat that?' Atobe eyed his own uneaten burger. The paper wrapping that it had come in was unwrapped, and Atobe could see the oil stains on it. Atobe didn't even want to think about how much _fat_ was in that single unhealthy burger. It was practically the embodiment of heart disease.

Ryoma shrugged, but didn't reply, still eating. When he finished, he said, 'Eat yours then.'

Atobe stared at Ryoma as if he was crazy, and then gave him a proposition. 'Sure. If you tell me why you left two years ago.' Atobe couldn't help but feel curious about where the brat had been...and why he had simply disappeared without telling anyone.

Ryoma looked at him, and smirked again. 'I didn't know you cared, Monkey King. And I'll eat your burger for you then.' Ryoma reached over and grabbed Atobe's burger.

'Echizen?' A loud voice shouted from behind him. '...Atobe?'

Atobe and Ryoma turned to look at Momoshiro Takeshi, who let go of his bitten burger, which hit the floor with a splat.

x x x

And another regular shows up! I'm just trying to think about how to advance the plot after all of the regulars _do_ appear. xD

Anyway, concrit, flames, and reviews are all welcome! -awinchan


	3. Impetuous Revelation

Idyllic Dystopia

Oh, chapter two! xD How fast these chapters fly by.

I don't have much to say, 'cept that I don't own PoT, and this is AU. I have rather boring A/Ns, don't I?

And I must thank liyenthel for reading through this.

x Impetuous Revelation

_'Echizen? ... Atobe?'_

Momoshiro Takeshi let go of his burger involuntarily, the burger's contents falling onto the ground, and stared at the two of them, Atobe with widened eyes, and Echizen with his trademark smirk.

Echizen waved Momo over. 'Momo-chan-sempai, don't make a scene.'

'Echizen! You come back to Japan after so long, and you meet up with _Atobe_ before me?' Momo shouted, either not hearing or completely ignoring what Ryoma had said about not making a scene.

Echizen continued to smirk. 'It's nice to see you too, Momo-sempai. Sit down and shut up, or somebody will ask us to leave.'

Sure enough, when Momo turned to look at one of the employees, the employee said with a nervous expression, 'I'll have to ask you to leave. You're disturbing the others.'

Momo turned to Echizen, and grabbed his arm. 'I'm not leaving without some answers.' He pulled Echizen away from the table, and Atobe just watched as his dining partner was torn away from him rather forcibly, with Atobe's burger in hand.

Momo took Echizen outside of the fast food restaurant, and grabbed him by his shoulders. 'Why did you leave?' Momo asked seriously.

Echizen simply shrugged, a blank look on his face.

'Why don't you have an answer?' Momo asked, sounding pained. His kouhai had disappeared for so long, and upon returning, still didn't have anything to say to him to explain his actions?

Echizen stared straight back at Momo, poker face unwavering. He then stuck out the burger that had been in his hand. 'Here. Since you dropped yours.'

Momo grudgingly took the burger, and then took a bite. In this moment, Echizen left.

'Hey- You-' Momo tried to shout, but choked on his burger. He coughed for a few seconds, and when he looked around again, Ryoma was nowhere to be seen.

'Thank you for losing him for me, Momoshiro,' said a drawling voice. Momo turned to stare at Atobe, who was frowning.

'What were you doing with him?' Momo frowned as well.

x

Atobe smirked, amused at Momo's rather confused expression. 'Talking, until you came along. And I might have gotten him to tell me what he had been doing too, if it hadn't been for you barging in.'

'He's my best friend! Of course I had to go and talk to him!' Momo defended himself. 'And what were you doing with him anyway?'

'Talking and eating. What did it look like?' Atobe raised an eyebrow, thinking it strange that Ryoma hadn't contacted his _best friend_ about his return. 'Well, I'm going to leave now. I wish you luck in finding him.' Atobe started walking away, leaving Momo bemused as for what to do next. Atobe wondered if Ryoma had actually told anybody about his return.

x

Tezuka's cell phone was usually only called by four people: his two parents when they needed to contact him, Oishi when the mother hen was worried about one thing or another, and Fuji when the genius simply wanted some form of amusement.

So when he heard his phone ringing while walking in a park, he was quite surprised to see, after taking the phone out of his pocket, that on the top of his cell phone, the words 'Calling - Momoshiro Takeshi' flashing on the small screen.

Tezuka answered, not sure what to expect. 'Hello, this is Tezuka speaking.'

'Tezuka-buchou! He- I saw- On the streets- With Atobe-'

Tezuka waited for Momo to calm down.

Momo repeated himself, except much more clearly. 'Echizen's back.'

Tezuka took a slight intake of breath, caught off guard despite himself. Echizen Ryoma, back in Japan? He replied in a relatively normal voice, 'Where is he?'

'I don't know!' Momo sounded frustrated. 'I had talked to him for a bit but then he ran off and Atobe distracted me so I couldn't run after him!'

Tezuka frowned at the new information. 'Atobe?'

'He had been eating with Echizen! Echizen had been with Atobe instead of us! He hadn't even thought of contacting his old sempai-tachi, and then he ran off without even telling me how I could contact him! That little-'

'Momo.'

'...Sorry, buchou.'

'You don't know where he's living?'

'No. I went to where he used to live, you know, but then I saw nobody there. So he's probably living somewhere else.'

Tezuka nodded, and then realised that Momo couldn't see him. '...Momo.'

'What, Tezuka-buchou?'

'...Don't tell anyone yet.'

Momo didn't question Tezuka, but hung up.

Tezuka hung up as well, putting his cell phone back into his pocket, and noticed that he had been standing in the middle of the path for quite a while. There were a few passers-by staring at him strangely. He walked along the path until he reached a bench, and sat down.

Echizen was back in Japan. It seemed surreal.

He didn't want Momo to tell anyone though... In case Echizen wasn't going to stay. He didn't want to bring anybody's hopes up so high, to have them crushed after Echizen left without a trace once again.

He sighed. Their summer vacation had almost been over without any major events... And then Echizen had appeared back into their lives, without warning or contacting any of them. Not that Echizen returning was a bad thing, but it was a shock.

In one week, they would all be in Seishun Gakuen High School again, and then they would be back on the tennis team without their cocky freshman regular.

If Echizen was really in Japan, he'd be in high school as well... Tezuka felt himself wondering whether Echizen would be joining them as a freshman regular of Seigaku once again.

He mentally chided himself for letting his guard down, and for wasting his time. He knew he needed to go to the sports shop before it closed to get some new grip tape and perhaps look at some tennis shoes... He could see the sun setting already. It was getting late. He didn't get up though, and stared off into the distance, still sitting on the bench.

'Hey, Tezuka-buchou, I didn't think you'd be one to daydream.' A rather impolite voice spoke up, and Tezuka looked up to see Echizen Ryoma smirking down at him.

x x x

The second chapter is finished! How exciting. xD I'm sorry if this story seems to be at a rather slow start! xD

And the pairing hasn't been decided yet, because I'm an indecisive little authoress. Suggestions would be welcome

Anyway, please review! Concrit and flames will be welcomed with open arms, no matter how many burns I suffer. -awinchan


	4. Emergent Misunderstanding

**Idyllic Dystopia**

And here is chapter three! Tada! I'm sorry if the story seems a bit slow, but I'm attempting to introduce more of the regulars before starting school. n.n I've just got back from vacation, and I'm updating. xD I'm -so- hardworking... (I just don't want to type up my challenges/requests...)

Nope, don't own PoT!

**x Emergent Misunderstanding**

_'Hey, Tezuka-buchou, I didn't think you'd be one to daydream.'_

Ryoma smirked, seeing Tezuka's eyes widen and eyebrows rise. He had kind of expected more of a reaction though, since he had showed up out of nowhere after leaving for so long, but it was Tezuka, king of the poker face.

Tezuka nodded. 'Echizen.'

The two stood there for a few moments, both staring, one with a smirk, and the other with a frown, and then Echizen nodded back. 'I'll see you around.' He started walking again.

'Echizen!'

Ryoma turned around.

x

Tezuka didn't understand.

Why did Ryoma have nothing else to say? There had been no explanation at all. Not for his disappearance, his sudden reappearance... And then he had started to leave.

Ryoma looked at Tezuka from over his shoulder. 'What, buchou?'

Tezuka paused at the use of 'buchou', and said quietly, 'I'm not your captain anymore, Echizen.'

Ryoma shrugged. 'Bye then, Tezuka-san.'

'Echizen.' Tezuka said again, stopping the boy in his tracks.

'What?'

Tezuka asked, 'Are you attending Seishun Gakuen High School in a week?' He could almost imagine a tremble in his voice, a bit of hope, even.

'Why does it matter if I'm not even going to be in the tennis club, Tezuka-_san_?' And with that, Ryoma continued to walk away. And this time, Tezuka didn't stop him.

...Tezuka still didn't know whether Ryoma was going to be at Seigaku High School or not... And why wasn't Ryoma going to be in the tennis club?

Tezuka noticed that the sun was already completely down. He would have to get that grip tape some other day.

x

Ryoma had the door opened for him by Nanako, who smiled. 'Welcome back, Ryoma-san.'

Ryoma nodded, and could smell dinner being cooked. He sat down on the sofa.

'Did you meet any of your friends?' His mother, Rinko, asked from the kitchen.

'...Nobody in particular.'

Nanako sat down beside Ryoma. 'Why don't you contact some of your friends, Ryoma-san? So you can catch up with them?'

'I'll be fine. Kaa-san, I'm not hungry.' Ryoma spotted Karupin, who was walking towards him. He picked Karupin up, and petted him.

Nanako nodded. 'I'll bring you to your room.' She stuck out a hand, but Ryoma just put Karupin back on the floor, and pulled himself up.

Nanako pulled back her hand, and smiled. 'Let's go then, Ryoma-san.' She led him down a hallway to a large room, with Karupin trotting happily after them.

'Now, auntie's already put away all of your stuff in the closet over there.' Nanako pointed at a door to her right. 'That's your bed, and I've put food for Karupin in the dish next to it. There's a TV in here too, in case you get bored, and through that door is your bathroom, which has bath salts in the cupboard underneath the sink.'

'My bathroom?'

Nanako nodded. 'Well, your room has the only door to that bathroom.'

'...Thank you, Nanako-san.' With that, Ryoma got onto his bed, and let himself drift to his dreams.

x

Though it was strange enough for Tezuka to get calls from people outside of the usual four, it was even stranger for Tezuka to actually _call_ somebody at all, let alone anybody outside of the usual four.

Which is why Atobe should have been completely baffled as to why Tezuka has just called him at 5:42 AM. Atobe was one of the dreaded species called Morning People, but that didn't mean that he took pleasure in waking up at such ungodly hours.

'Atobe.'

'Tezuka.' Atobe figured out Tezuka's reason for calling him almost immediately. 'You can talk to me about Echizen at 7:00 AM, which is when people as great as me wake up.'

'Atobe.' Tezuka sounded serious, and Atobe could imagine the frown on his face.

'What do you want to know?'

x

'I don't know where he lives exactly, but he stays in one of my company's apartments. I haven't found out the exact floor and room, as nobody by the surname 'Echizen' has an apartment there.'

Atobe continued, 'I don't think he's told anyone that he's returned.'

'Did he tell you why he left?' Tezuka questioned.

'No. He didn't tell me why he came back, either.'

'Ah.'

'Didn't he contact any of you at all?'

'No.'

Neither said anything more. Atobe hung up.

Tezuka put down his phone as well, and looked at the clock. 5:49 AM. He normally woke up a bit later, but he hadn't been able to sleep.

Why hadn't Ryoma told any of them he was returning? Did Ryoma not want anyone to know?

And the whole mystery about why Ryoma had left still hadn't been solved...

x

Ryoma woke up, finding himself on fluffy white sheets. His eyes widened in shock, forgetting where he was for a moment, and instead letting his mind drift back to thin white hospital sheets with hard mattresses and...

He shook his head, and found himself on fluffy white sheets once again. He felt Karupin beside him, and he picked him up, giving him a slight hug. Karupin meowed, and then jumped out of Ryoma's arms to get to the food at the side of the bed.

He sat on his bed, and noticed that he was still wearing the clothes that he had been wearing on his first day back to Japan, his cap askew on his messy hair. He decided to quickly get changed, and he went to his closet, planning on just grabbing a t-shirt and shorts.

However, he hadn't expected it to be a walk-in closet. He felt his eyes widen once again (Just how rich _was_ Nanako-san?) as he found the closet to be less of a closet, and more of a study. To his left he saw his actual clothes, and his suitcase, but in front of him was a desk, with a computer on top. There were bookshelves full with books and magazines lining the walls, and there was a large skylight that illuminated the room.

Forgetting about changing, he went to the bookshelves. He glanced over the titles, and found books and magazines in both Japanese and English. He couldn't help but smile upon seeing the Cats Today magazine, with a Himalayan cat on the cover.

'Ryoma, you're awake?'

Ryoma spun around to see his mother looking at him, concerned. 'It's a bit early, isn't it?' She asked. 'It's only eight.'

Ryoma nodded, his face emotionless again.

His mother smiled. 'I cooked a Japanese breakfast for you.'

Ryoma nodded again, and followed his mother to the table, where rice, miso soup, and grilled fish were waiting for him. He sat himself down.

'Why don't you call up some of your friends today?' Nanako asked. 'You could arrange a get-together, Ryoma-san.'

Ryoma shook his head. 'It's fine.' He picked up his chopsticks with his left hand and started to eat.

'But I'm sure that they'd want to hear from you!' His mother protested, watching carefully to see her son's reaction.

Ryoma shrugged, and drank half of his miso soup. 'I'm full, kaa-san.'

Rinko eyed the untouched grilled fish, but said in a falsely cheerful voice, 'Why don't you go and find some of your friends then?'

'I could drive you,' Nanako suggested.

'I'll go for a walk.' Ryoma got up.

His mother frowned, but didn't stop him.

x

'You again?'

Atobe frowned at Ryoma's annoyed expression. 'I came to look for you personally and this is the reception I get?' Atobe had envisioned a more polite welcome, perhaps a smile, or even, a 'Thank you!' but then... He remembered that it was Echizen Ryoma, the Prince of Tennis, he was thinking about.

'Why do you care, Monkey King?' Ryoma said exasperatedly. 'I just want to take a walk.'

'Walk with me then,' Atobe commanded, ignoring Ryoma's foul nickname.

Ryoma raised an eyebrow. 'I'm not a monkey, so you can't order me around.'

Atobe resisted the urge to roll his eyes. 'I just want to know what's wrong,' Atobe said seriously.

Ryoma said resignedly, 'Fine. A walk.'

Atobe smirked smugly. He had gotten

'But only if you buy me Ponta.'

Atobe felt like slapping his forehead.

x

Ryoma drank his cold grape Ponta contentedly, as he and Atobe walked through a park, which was coincidentally the one that Ryoma had encountered Tezuka in. He didn't say anything until he finished, finally throwing the can into a trashcan.

'So.' He said uninterestedly, 'What do you want to talk about?'

'Why'd you leave Japan?' Atobe asked candidly.

'Why do you care, Monkey King?' Ryoma replied. 'You've been bothering me ever since I got here. Why does it matter to you?' He raised an eyebrow, turning to look at Atobe.

Atobe responded, 'Well, you didn't tell anyone you were coming back, not even your _best friend_ Momoshiro, and I find that a cause of worry.'

'Why would it worry you?' Ryoma asked again.

'You're changing the subject, brat.'

Ryoma shrugged. 'I don't have to answer the question if I don't want to,' he said stubbornly.

'Well, you better answer-'

'Echizen?' A soft voice interrupted Atobe, and Atobe and Ryoma turned around to look at Fuji Syusuke, who had a smile akin to the Cheshire Cat's on his face.

x

Tada! Chapter 3 finished! Now, wouldn't you like to review? -awinchan


	5. Fleeting Intermezzo

**Idyllic Dystopia **

Chapter four is up earlier than usual! Because I'm awake at 4:00 AM and have nothing better to do. There is going to be a total lunar eclipse today though AND I'm off-topic. Anyway, here is chapter four!

**x Fleeting Intermezzo**

_'Echizen?_'

Fuji Syusuke smiled widely. So what he had assumed had been correct... Momo really had to make sure that when he was making private calls in public areas, he toned down his voice just a little bit.

Fuji smiled even wider upon seeing Atobe there as well. So that part of the conversation was accurate as well.

'Fuji-senpai?' Ryoma asked, surprise in his voice.

Fuji nodded. 'It's nice to see you too, Echizen. Atobe, I hope I'm not interrupting anything here.'

Ryoma shook his head. 'No, you're not, Fuji-senpai. What are you doing here?' He asked curiously.

'Can't I take a walk in the morning?' Fuji responded lightly. He took in Ryoma's appearance. He looked almost the same, with his cap, his golden eyes, and his blackish green hair. Ryoma seemed to have grown a bit, but not a lot, Fuji thought, amused. But he also seemed a bit pale.

Ryoma shrugged.

'Why don't we take a walk together, Echizen? And you can tell us about your travels.' Fuji said this in a cheerful voice, but both Ryoma and Atobe could hear the underlying seriousness.

Ryoma said carefully, 'I think-'

'That we should all go and eat some breakfast,' Fuji finished the sentence for him. 'You don't mind, right, Atobe?'

Atobe caught on quickly, and smirked. 'Of course not.'

Ryoma could only watch helplessly as he was taken to a café.

x

'I would like a cup of green tea, please,' Fuji said with his innocent smile to the waitress, who blushed.

'A cup of coffee for me,' Atobe said with a smile to rival Fuji's.

'Grape Ponta,' Ryoma grunted. The waitress looked at the three of them altogether with a bit of surprise, perhaps wondering why the two charismatic young men were associating themselves with a bratty, capped boy.

She left, and then Fuji started the conversation.

'So, what school are you planning on going to next week?'

Ryoma responded flatly, 'Seishun Gakuen High School.'

Atobe looked at Ryoma. 'Really?'

Ryoma replied, 'Didn't I just say so, Monkey King?'

'We'll be in the same school then, Echizen.' Fuji interrupted before the two could start arguing. 'Have you told any of the others?'

'I've only seen Momo and bu- Tezuka-san.' Ryoma replied.

Fuji didn't change his expression when Ryoma stopped himself from saying buchou, but took a mental note to ask Tezuka about it later. He continued his interrogation.

'Will you be joining the tennis team then?' Fuji said, trying to keep the mood light.

The poker face that Ryoma had been keeping the whole time faltered, resulting in a small frown. 'No.'

'Why not?' Fuji asked.

'I'm not joining the tennis club.'

'What?' Atobe asked, utterly bewildered.

'Here are your drinks.' The waitress put down a cup of hot coffee, a cup of green tea, and a can of grape Ponta.

Ryoma opened his can of grape Ponta, which let out a hiss.

'Why aren't you joining the tennis club, Echizen?' Fuji's blue eyes were open, and staring straight at Ryoma.

Ryoma didn't answer right away, choosing to drink a bit of his Ponta first. After putting down his can of Ponta, he said lamely, 'I don't want to.'

'Try to think up a better lie, Echizen,' Fuji replied firmly. 'Why aren't you joining the tennis club?'

Ryoma didn't answer at all, and took a long drink from his Ponta, finishing it off. He said with a smirk, 'You don't mind paying for another Ponta, do you, Monkey King?' He stood up, and left through the door.

x

Fuji and Atobe drank their respective drinks in silence, until Atobe commented, 'You didn't seem surprised about seeing Echizen.'

'That's because I wasn't,' Fuji replied with a smile.

Atobe raised an eyebrow. 'You knew?'

'I overheard Momo talking about Echizen to Tezuka.'

Atobe frowned. It seemed that at least three other people knew about Ryoma being there. And who knows whom Momo had told.

'Momo didn't tell anyone else, because Tezuka didn't want him to,' Fuji reassured Atobe, as if he had read Atobe's mind.

Atobe didn't ask about how Fuji had figured out his worries, deciding that it'd probably be better for him not to know. Instead, he changed the subject. 'Do you have any idea as to why the brat left Japan?'

Fuji shook his head. 'All we know is that he left soon after his father passed away because of a car accident,' he said, referring to the Seigaku team as we.

Atobe asked, shocked, 'His father died in a car accident?'

Fuji nodded. 'There was only a small mention of Echizen Nanjirou in the obituary section. It doesn't explain why Echizen junior left though.'

Atobe pondered this, and finished off his coffee. It tasted oddly bitter, and he remembered that he hadn't added any sugar to it yet.

x

Ryoma went back to the apartment, to find the door open. 'Tadaima,' he said, taking off his shoes.

'Ryoma-san, welcome home,' Nanako replied cheerfully. 'Auntie's got lunch cooking now-'

'I'm not hungry,' Ryoma said unenthusiastically, as he headed for his room, not noticing Nanako's worried expression.

He fell onto his soft bed, facing up. His legs were extremely tired from all the walking he had done...

Karupin pounced onto the bed, and Ryoma pet Karupin, who purred. If only everyone else was as easily pleased as Karupin was, who never asked questions at all, content to accept him, no matter what had happened in the past.

'Ryoma, are you okay?' His mother stood in the doorway, looking at him fretfully.

Ryoma responded from his bed, 'My legs are just a bit tired.'

'Your legs?' Rinko said anxiously, 'I'll get Nanako to drive you the next time you need to go anywhere, okay? You shouldn't tire yourself out.'

'It's fine, kaa-san.'

His mother paused, and then said quietly, 'There's lunch on the table if you're hungry later, okay?' She went away, leaving Ryoma alone with Karupin again.

Ryoma let himself fall into the oblivion of sleep, just hoping that there would be no dreams or nightmares to disturb it.

x

Ryoma woke up the next morning, and checked the clock on his bedside table. He had been asleep for over eighteen hours, which was a lot, even for him.

He walked to his door, and found a note taped to it.

Ryoma-san, 

Auntie went out to buy some groceries and things, and I'm at work. There's breakfast on the table. Auntie won't be back until around four, and I'll be back from work at six. There's lunch for you in the fridge, and you can reheat that in the microwave.

_Please don't go out by yourself._

_Nanako_

Ryoma took the note off of the door, and placed it on his bed. He put Karupin onto the floor, where Karupin promptly started eating.

He only had a few days left before he would have to attend Seishun Gakuen High School, and meet up with everybody that he had been avoiding... All of the tennis regulars that he had left behind so abruptly.

How much longer would it be until everyone found out, Ryoma wondered.

He didn't feel very hungry.

**x x x**

I'm sorry if the story looks like it's going nowhere XD I assure you, it _is_ inching towards a conclusion... albeit taking a long time about it. XD

Now, I think that reviews would be lovely. -awinchan


	6. Forgone Velitation

**Idyllic Dystopia **

Chapter five is here. Wow, this story is getting really lame. The ennui that I feel when I read this is almost palpable, I swear XD. Currently, this story is heading towards an AtoRyo or FujiRyo or ...dare I say it? TezuRyo. But I've also had requests for Sakuno x Ryoma and EijiRyo, so I'll have to think about it.

**x Forgone Velitation**

'Ryoma-san, wake up.'

Ryoma rolled about in his bed, and heard this quiet voice talking to him. It couldn't be morning already; it felt like he had only slept for half an hour.

'Ryoma-san, you have school today.'

The voice wouldn't shut up. It droned on and on about school and how Ryoma was supposed to go to this school. Ryoma grabbed his pillow and covered up his ears.

'Ryoma-san, Karupin's hungry.'

Ryoma, hearing Karupin's name, grudgingly let go of the pillow and got off the bed. He took the bag of cat food beside his bed and poured some of it into Karupin's food dish. Karupin meowed happily, and Ryoma looked to the doorway to see Nanako.

'I'll drive you to school, 'kay, Ryoma-san?' Nanako offered. 'It's on my way to work anyway.'

Ryoma nodded, and headed towards the closet, when he felt his legs shake underneath him.

'Ryoma-san, are you still tired?'

Ryoma nodded again, and said dully, 'I haven't completely recovered from jet lag yet.'

He went into his closet, and quickly got changed. He then went to the bathroom, and checked that his cap was in its place. He also noticed the small dark rings around his eyes; the jet lag really hadn't set in yet. He went back out to find Nanako waiting for him in front of his room.

'There's breakfast on the-' Nanako started, but Ryoma shook his head.

'I'm not hungry, Nanako-san.'

Nanako put a smile on her face. 'Well, have you got all your school stuff ready?'

Ryoma stared. 'School stuff?'

'Your books and pencils and things?'

Ryoma tried to remember if he had brought things over from America.

'Ah, here it is.' Nanako pointed next to his bed, where his backpack was waiting. 'Auntie must have packed it for you, Ryoma-san.'

Ryoma took the backpack and slung it on his shoulders, slumping over a bit from the weight. Did high school really require so many things? He hadn't expected the bag to be so heavy.

'You okay?' Nanako said worriedly.

Ryoma replied, 'Yeah. Let's go then, Nanako-san.'

The two trekked out of the apartment to the back, where Nanako's car was waiting.

x

'Oishi, I'm so glad we don't have morning practice today,' Eiji said cheerfully. 'Even Tezuka wouldn't make us practise on the first day back from summer vacation.'

'But you'll have to start again next week anyway,' Oishi reminded his companion.

Eiji waved his hand through the air, as if waving away said notion. 'That's so far away anyway, Oishi!'

The pair walked through the Seishun Gakuen High School doors, and then Eiji caught a glimpse of a certain capped individual. Eiji shouted, 'Oishi, over there!' He pointed, but by the time Oishi looked, said individual had disappeared from view.

'What, Eiji?'

'...I just thought I saw somebody. Never mind, Oishi. Let's get to class then!'

x

Ryoma was glad for the large amount of people in the halls, or he wouldn't have been able to slip away from his former senpai-tachi's view.

He knew it was ridiculous though. How long would he be able to avoid people in the same school as him? And word was bound to get around anyway, and Ryoma knew that soon, everybody he had been acquainted with would realise that he was back.

It didn't stop Ryoma from trying to evade all of the other regulars anyway though.

He first checked into the office, to get directions to his classroom. Then, he went straight there, and sat against the wall next to the door. He found himself nodding off to sleep.

x

'Sakuno, we're in high school now,' Tomoka said happily. 'Can you believe it?'

Sakuno shook her head. 'The last three years went by so quickly.'

Tomoka nodded her head to this. 'And in another three years, we'll be off to university!'

Sakuno smiled, and the two walked towards their classroom. 'I wonder who our teacher will be this year.'

'So do I,' Tomoka replied. 'Maybe- Ryoma-sama?'

Sakuno turned to her friend. 'Maybe Ryoma what?'

Tomoko gaped. And stared at the capped first-year who was sleeping next to the door. 'Ryoma-sama!'

Ryoma looked up and smirked. 'Osakada. It's nice to see you too.'

x

Ryoma got up from his seated position, and looked at the two in front of him. 'It's nice to see you too. Are you in this class too then?'

Tomoka nodded, speechless, for once. Sakuno said shyly, 'Ryoma-kun, it's been a while.'

Ryoma acquiesced. 'Over two years now.'

'Where were you?' Tomoka asked, her ability to talk returning.

'Echizen?'

Ryoma almost groaned aloud; he recognised that voice. He was glad for the interruption anyway. He hadn't been sure of what to say.

'Horio.'

'What are you doing here?' Horio Satoshi said in a loud voice.

Ryoma smirked. 'Going to class?' He went through the classroom door, and Tomoka and Sakuno followed, while Horio did not. Ryoma supposed that Horio was (lucky for Ryoma) in a different class. At least he wouldn't have to listen to Horio during class then.

x

The regulars sat at their usual cafeteria table for lunch, each eating their respective bentos.

Eiji said happily, 'It's almost fun to be back at school, isn't it?'

Fuji replied with a smile, 'That's only because you haven't gotten any work yet, Eijiko.'

'Fujiko, I had been trying not to think of that!' Eiji pouted at Fuji, who only smiled wider.

Oishi and Kawamura were talking about some of the schoolwork they had already been assigned, and Kaidoh was simply sitting at the table, eating his own lunch slowly. Inui was staring at the people seated at the table, watching each person in turn closely.

However, Momo and Tezuka weren't eating very much at all.

Fuji, noticing this, asked innocuously, 'Are you two _nervous_ about something?'

Momo spluttered, 'What makes you think that?'

Inui muttered, 'Momo is stuttering. 82 percent chance that he is hiding something.'

Tezuka said nothing.

Before Fuji could continue his interrogation, there was an interruption in the form of Horio.

'Senpai-tachi!' He shouted.

Oishi said kindly, 'What is it?'

'Echizen's back!' Horio stammered.

There was silence. And then...

'Echizen? What do you mean, back?'

'Echizen's here?'

'Do you mean in school?'

'Quiet.'

The last phrase was said by Tezuka, to stop the onslaught of questions.

Everyone turned to Tezuka. He then said to Horio, 'Where is he?'

'I think he's still in the classroom.' Horio answered nervously.

'Which one?'

'1-1.'

Wordlessly, the whole table got up and started heading for 1-1.

x

'He's sleeping,' Momo whispered.

Momo looked down on his kouhai, who was indeed asleep, with his English textbook propped up in front of him. Momo stifled a chuckle; at least that part of Echizen hadn't changed.

'We shouldn't wake him up,' Kawamura said quietly.

Kaidoh nodded, but Momo said in a raised tone, 'But I want to know why he left us more than two years ago!'

Kaidoh turned to Momo irritably, and muttered, 'Keep quiet.'

'Don't you tell me to be quiet, Mamushi-'

'Quiet, Momoshiro.' Tezuka ordered. Momo shut up.

Oishi confessed, 'I somewhat want to know why Echizen left too.'

Inui nodded. 'I can't comprehend it, even with my data.'

'And I want to know why ochibi didn't tell us he was coming back nya!' Eiji said.

'Shush, Eiji,' Oishi said gently. 'He's still sleeping, remember?'

Kawamura added, 'We can always ask him some other time, like during practice, right?'

Eiji grinned. 'And then I can play ochibi again! I want to show him how much better I've gotten.'

Fuji commented, 'If you want answers, you might as well ask now. Right, Tezuka?'

'Eh? Fujiko, what do you mean?'

Tezuka looked at Fuji. Did Fuji know already, about Ryoma not joining the tennis club? ...But how?

Tezuka answered, 'Echizen's not joining the tennis club.'

'What?' Momo shouted.

'Quiet, Momo!'

'Sorry, sorry. But what do you mean, buchou?'

'He means that I'm not joining the tennis club. Weren't you listening, Momo-chan-senpai?' A drawling voice from between all of them spoke, and the regulars all looked down to one Echizen Ryoma, fully awake.

x

Ryoma found all the eyes staring at him rather unnerving, actually. It was also a bit amusing.

'Echizen!' Momo frowned. 'You're not joining the tennis club?'

Ryoma decided that rolling his eyes would be a bad idea. 'Didn't I just say that, Momo-senpai?'

'Why, Echizen?' Oishi was in mother hen mode. 'Are you sick? Injured? What's wrong?'

'Can't I _just not want to play tennis_, Oishi-senpai? And if you'll all excuse me, I'm going to go eat my lunch.' Ryoma got up, and grabbed his bag. He started heading for the door.

Right as Ryoma was about to walk through the door though, Tezuka enjoined, 'Echizen. Stop.'

And to this, Ryoma replied, 'I don't have to listen, Tezuka-_san_. Remember? You're not my captain any more.' With this, Ryoma departed, leaving Tezuka with six rather confused regulars and one smiling Fuji.

x x x

And there's the end of the chapter! I'm quite worried that I'm scaring readers away for a strange reason xDDD But anyway, wouldn't reviewing be simply lovely? All of you people who alerted this story and _haven't reviewed_, it'd be great if you did XD Even if all you have to say is 'Please update' or 'Cute' or 'Would you like to join me in bashing in Chocolate Confection's head?' n.n

Long story short, please please review? -awinchan


	7. Seriatim Affair

**Idyllic Dystopia **

Because of a few particularly endearing reviews, I felt like I owed you people something. So here is another update, right after I updated the day before! Isn't this just lovely? I apologize for its briefness, which has been complained/mentioned in some reviews. XD I'll see if I can lengthen the chapters following this one.

This story is either going to be AtoRyo or FujiRyo.

And for Raraikii, I changed the BC and AD to BCE and BC, and I'm sorry for my mistake. I, however, actually live in Canada. XD

**x Seriatim Affair**

Atobe sat in his class, watching his teacher's mouth open and close as he talked about poetry.

Atobe wasn't taking in any of it. His mind wasn't on poetry at all. But he couldn't help it.

It was focused, instead, on a particular capped freshman of Seigaku.

Atobe prided himself on knowing a lot, whether about tennis, or school subjects, or about his friends and classmates.

And the fact that he _still_ didn't know why Echizen had disappeared and then reappeared irked him. Greatly.

He didn't know why it was bothering him so much. Echizen wasn't even from his school. But there was something about the cocky brat that just distracted him, the way he smirked, the mocking way in which he'd say 'mada mada da ne', the antisocial glare...

Perhaps it was because Echizen was one of the few people that Atobe would consider on his level in tennis?

Atobe watched the second hand of the clock on the wall slowly move by, ticking away the time until the bell signalling lunch would ring. The teacher still droned on and on about some irrelevant thing, talking about sonnets and haikus...

'Hey. Atobe.'

Atobe looked up from his desk, and noticed that he had fallen asleep. He said arrogantly, 'What is it, Oshitari?'

Oshitari Yuushi raised an eyebrow. 'The bell rang.'

'Ah.'

Oshitari commented, 'If you're that worried about Echizen, you might as well go and check up on him after school.'

Atobe stared at Oshitari, astounded. He had known that Oshitari was a genius, but... to understand Atobe to that extent...

'You were sleep talking, Atobe,' Oshitari finished with a smirk. 'Quite audibly.'

Atobe harrumphed and left the room.

x

Ryoma sat by himself on the grassy field, leaning against a tall Japanese maple. At least in the field nobody would bother him, or so he hoped. He looked back at the school, certain that in one of the rooms, his tennis club senpai-tachi were discussing the cause of his unwillingness to join the tennis club.

He had been worried for a moment, when he saw Inui, the data man of Seigaku. What if Inui recognised his symptoms? Luckily enough for Ryoma, Inui hadn't questioned him about anything, or Ryoma might not have been able to make up a suitable lie in time. He wasn't the world's best liar.

He opened his bag to find a bento with a note attached, written in what he distinguished as his mother's writing. He quickly read it in his head.

Ryoma- 

_I packed your bag for you. I hope I didn't forget any of the school stuff you needed. If you're feeling unwell at all or tired, call Nanako immediately. Be careful and don't strain yourself! _

_Try your best to finish the bento though. _

_-Kaa-san_

Opening the bento, Ryoma found an elaborate lunch. Picking up the chopsticks that had come with the bento, he looked at the food, finding that he didn't have much of an appetite.

'Oi! Echizen!'

Ryoma groaned, and saw Momo running up towards him. Perhaps the senpai-tachi weren't discussing about him then.

'What is it?' Ryoma asked in an apathetic tone, putting his bento and chopsticks away in his bag. He could finish it some time later.

Momo's face was serious, a drastic contrast from his usual cheerful expression. 'Why are you not joining the tennis club?'

Ryoma shrugged. 'Don't want to.'

'Echizen-' Momo started, but then the school bell rang, signalling the end of lunch.

Ryoma said readily, 'I think that I better get going, Momo-senpai.' He quickly snatched his bag up from the ground and walked towards the building, leaving Momo standing by himself.

Ryoma knew he was being ridiculous, even as he walked off. He knew that everyone would find out eventually.

But that didn't stop him from trying to prolong the time in which nobody else knew anything.

x

Fuji sat in class, not really paying attention the teacher's ramblings. Though he held a pen in his hand, the page that he was supposed to be writing notes on was completely empty.

He felt somebody poke him in his side, and turned to see Eiji, who handed him a sheet of paper.

Fuji put it onto his desk, and read it quickly.

Do you think ochibi is okay? 

Fuji wrote a reply, keeping an eye on the teacher to make sure she wasn't watching him.

_I don't know, Eiji. _

Fuji handed the paper back to Eiji, who scribbled something down, and passed it over.

_Do you think he's sick? I don't understand why ochibi doesn't want to play tennis any more_.

Fuji frowned slightly upon reading said reply, opening his azure blue eyes to reflect upon the words. He didn't understand why Ryoma didn't want to play tennis either... And he didn't enjoy the feeling of not understanding. He was about to write down an answer when his teacher called him.

'Fuji-san, would you mind reading us the notes you've taken on my current topic?' The teacher asked, smiling quite vindictively.

Fuji smiled back his own innocent smile. 'Sure, sensei. The Jomon Period was from 13000 BCE to 300 BCE. The name of the periods comes from the name of the era's pottery. The period that comes after this is the Yayoi Period, which is from 300 BCE to 300 CE.' Fuji took a pause.

'Would you like me to continue, sensei?'

'Ah, Fuji-san, that'll be enough.'

Fuji continued to smile his smile, as the teacher, a bit flustered, returned to her droning.

The smile slipped off his face though, as he started wondering about the reason for Ryoma's disappearance, and if it correlated to why he wasn't joining the tennis club.

He decided that he might as well just _ask_ Ryoma, as his pondering wasn't bringing him anywhere.

There were only ten minutes until the end of school anyhow. Fuji was glad that he was a tensai, or the minimal amount of study notes (or rather, the nonexistent notes) that he had written down would have worried him.

x

Ryoma walked towards the gates of Seishun Gakuen. He had managed to get out of the school unnoticed by any of his senpai-tachi, thus avoiding any awkward confrontations and question-and-answer sessions. He had gotten enough of those from Tomoka during class, who had only stopped talking after the teacher yelled at her maybe twenty times or so.

He kept his eyes on the ground, trying to avoid the eyes of other, lest they became aware of his presence. He'd end up with another bunch of nosy people asking about where the brilliant Prince of Tennis had been, and other annoying questions of the like that he _really_ didn't feel like answering.

He had almost reached the gates when-

'Echizen! Get into the limo.'

Ryoma looked with increasing dread at the smirking Atobe Keigo, standing next to a shiny black limousine right in front of the school.

**x x x**

Chapter 6, finished! XD I can't promise that the next update will be so soon though

Same thing as last chapter. I really appreciate reviews; they're what made me churn out this chapter so fast XDD They inspire me! XD Or so I like to believe. So, please review? -awinchan


	8. Apocryphal Interlude

**Idyllic Dystopia**

Updated once again. Please forgive me if the updates from now on are more spaced out, like maybe two weeks per update. I have homework and studying to do (not to mention two hours of piano a day XD) so ... I will try my best to update quickly though!

And now, on with Chapter 7!

**x Apocryphal Interlude**

_'Echizen! Get into the limo.'_

Atobe frowned at the less than happy expression plastered on Ryoma's face.

'You should be honoured that I came to your school to visit you, brat,' Atobe said, the frown on his face deepening as Ryoma glared.

'What are you _doing_ here, Monkey King?' Ryoma hissed, quite aware of the scene that he and Atobe were making, and the several onlookers watching them.

Atobe smirked. 'Echizen, don't make a fuss. People are staring.'

'Answer my question,' Ryoma replied stubbornly.

Atobe continued to smirk. 'Now, Echizen, don't act like a child. Just get in the limo, before _everyone_ starts staring.'

Ryoma looked around, and thought drily that everyone couldn't be much more than the crowd that was already surrounding the two of them and the shiny black limousine.

Nevertheless, Ryoma could see Atobe's point. He really didn't feel like having everyone ogle at him, especially since somebody in the growing crowd was bound to notice _something_.

But what was Atobe's reason for bothering him at Seigaku? Ryoma glanced at Atobe. Ryoma didn't even really know Atobe.

'Well, Echizen, why don't we get in?' A soft voice said from behind Atobe and Ryoma, and they turned to see the ever-smiling Fuji.

x

Fuji was walking outside, still contemplating the reasons of why Ryoma was not joining the tennis club, when he noticed the large throng of students hanging around the Seishun Gakuen gate.

Easing his way through the mass of people, he gracefully manipulated himself to the front of the crowd, where he spotted two familiar faces, arguing beside a limousine. He speculated as to why Atobe was visiting Ryoma after school, and attempting to drive away with him as well...

'Just get in the limo, before everyone starts staring.'

Fuji smiled diabolically, a theory suddenly clicking in his mind. He decided to try his theory out, to see if his theory was actually fact.

And, he needed something to amuse him anyway.

'Well, Echizen, why don't we get in?' He said smoothly, enjoying the startled expression on both of Atobe's and Ryoma's faces.

'When did you get here, Fuji-senpai?' Ryoma asked, the deer-in-the-headlights air about him making Fuji want to laugh.

At the same time, Atobe asked rudely, 'What do you mean, "why don't _we_ get in"?'

Fuji resolved to reply to Ryoma first.

'I got here just now. I was wondering what everyone was staring at.' He looked pointedly at the still growing crowd around them, and gave them an icy blue-eyed glare, successfully making some of the crowd back off.

'So,' Fuji continued cheerfully, his eyes closed once more, 'Shall we get going?'

Atobe reiterated. 'What do you mean _we_?'

Fuji put on his innocent smile. 'Well, I'm sure that you planned to go somewhere with Echizen, and I don't feel that I can leave my kouhai in your hands.'

He took a dramatic pause. 'Who knows what you would do to him?' He walked closer to Ryoma and wrapped his arms protectively around Ryoma's shoulders.

Ryoma said irritably, 'What are you doing, Fuji-senpai?'

'Oh, just testing out a theory,' Fuji replied cheerfully. He glanced at Atobe's face, and noticed his clearly annoyed glare, that seemed to have just a hint, just a _little_ hint of covetousness.

It seemed that his theory was correct.

'Shall we be going, then?'

x

Things weren't going the way Atobe had planned.

He had expected to be sitting in a café with Ryoma telling him everything about where he had been the past two years, and saying how glad he had been that Atobe had gone to Seigaku just to meet with him.

Well, maybe not the last part, but Atobe had expected to _find out_ why Ryoma had pulled off his vanishing act.

He had certainly not supposed that he, Ryoma, and Fuji, would be sitting in a limousine, stuck in Tokyo traffic congestion, with him sitting isolated closer to the back of the limo, and Fuji and Ryoma chatting away in the two jump seats like old friends (Atobe refused to believe that they were _actually_ old friends, preferring to believe that they were simply senpai and kouhai) about _English phrases_.

'I like the phrase "**A good education should leave much to be desired**",' Fuji said.

'I've never heard of that, Fuji-senpai,' Ryoma said, raising his eyebrow. Atobe couldn't help but notice that Ryoma didn't seem to have a very wide range of emotions - he smirked, he glared, he frowned, and he raised his eyebrow. Another thing that Atobe couldn't help but notice was how Ryoma's frowns sometimes looked like very childish pouts. Endearing pouts.

Atobe promptly forced his mind to try and interpret what Fuji and Ryoma were saying, deciding that the previous mind meandering was only due to ennui.

Fuji smiled. 'It's by a person named Alan Gregg, Echizen.'

Ryoma's eyebrow stayed raised. 'And how do you know this?'

'Oh, I just do,' Fuji said carelessly. 'Have you heard "**A fool and his money are soon parted**"?

Ryoma nodded, and replied, 'How about "**Leave no stone unturned**"?'

Fuji's smile widened, understanding that it was a challenge. '"**Quart into a pint pot**"?'

Ryoma nodded again, smirking. '"**Take someone to the woodshed**"?'

Fuji mockingly admonished, 'Echizen, what on earth would someone want to do in a secluded woodshed with somebody else?'

Ryoma replied, 'Do you know what the phrase means, Fuji-senpai?'

Fuji nodded. 'It means that you're punishing someone for something they've done, but somehow, it seems that it would have been more appropriate if said punishing was done in the **red light district**.'

Atobe snapped. 'What are the two of you talking about?' The rapid English the two of them were speaking flew right over Atobe's head, but the snippets of Japanese that he was hearing were disturbing him.

'We're just talking about English, Atobe.' Fuji smiled. 'What did you think we were talking about?'

Atobe sighed. 'Fuji, what are you doing here?'

'Sitting in the middle of a traffic jam,' Fuji replied lightly.

'I meant, why are you in my limousine, Fuji?'

x

Ryoma watched the scene unfold with indifferent, faint attention.

'Hadn't I told you earlier?' Fuji's smile was the same, though the child-like innocence that it had held previously seemed to have vanished. 'I couldn't let Seigaku's precious freshman fall into the hands of somebody in Hyoutei, could I?'

'What do you mean by "fall into the hands of", Fuji?'

'I'm sure you can figure it out.'

As the bickering went on, Ryoma felt his head getting heavy, not really listening to the conversation happening around him.

It was of no concern of his anyway, what Fuji and Atobe were arguing about...

And with this last thought in his head, he let himself drift to sleep, to enter a dreamland where nothing was amiss. Where nothing had happened to change his life over two years ago.

A world that was, in Ryoma's point of view, perfect.

A utopia.

The antipode to the dystopia that Ryoma was trapped in.

**x x x**

I really need to have longer chapters, don't I?

And please, if you read this and found it, however slightly, to your liking, please review? Concrit would be_ extremely_ helpful too. But even if you have nothing to say for a review other than 'update soon' or 'update or I'll bash in your window', the thought is what counts! n.n -awinchan


	9. Latent Epiphany

**Idyllic Dystopia**

If this seems like a filler chapter, it's partially because... it is one. It's sort of an intermezzo between the introduction of the story, to the turning point, which will happen next chapter. I'm so sorry if this chapter (8) bores you!

But _anyway, _I don't own TeniPuri or any of its characters, and please read on!

**Latent Epiphany**

'I don't like what you're implying, Fuji,' Atobe said with a frown.

Fuji simply smiled back serenely, amused by Atobe's obvious annoyance. Fuji glanced to his side, and noticed Ryoma sleeping serenely upon his shoulder, and couldn't help but see the dark circles under Ryoma's eyes. Was Ryoma not getting enough sleep? Why? Fuji remembered that they (as in the regulars) had seen Ryoma sleeping at school...

Fuji couldn't help but feel that there was something wrong as he stared, his smile dropping slightly, at the boy's slight frame. Did Ryoma use to be so emaciated?

'What are you trying to say about Hyoutei?' Atobe continued in the same affronted tone.

'Shh...' Fuji said, placing a finger against his own lips, raising his smile once again. 'Echizen's sleeping.' He patted Ryoma's head.

The tensai couldn't help but smile wider at the indignant look on Atobe's face upon perceiving Ryoma's head on Fuji's shoulder.

'Are you _jealous_, Atobe?' Fuji said, a teasing note in his voice.

Atobe looked even more offended than before. '_Jealous_? Of what?'

Fuji laughed out loud. 'Atobe, I thought you were supposed to be intelligent.'

'Well, excuse me, if my great self doesn't have your genius qualities,' Atobe said, his superciliousness irked. 'What am I supposed to be jealous of?'

Fuji couldn't help but laugh again, but more quietly, taking care not to jostle the boy resting against his shoulder, for reasons that Fuji told himself were not ulterior.

Absolutely not because the burden of Ryoma's head was a rather comfortable one.

x

Bright, cheerful incandescent lights greeted Ryoma, as though welcoming him with a polite 'Finally woken up?'. Sitting up straight, he glanced about, seeing the smiling waitresses adorned with cute aprons and other café patrons. He noticed his bag beside him on the same comfy looking couch that he had been resting on.

This was not the limousine background that he had expected to see upon waking up (though he hadn't planned on sleeping either.)

'Atobe here picked you up and brought you in with us.'

Ryoma looked straight in front of him to see Atobe and Fuji sitting beside each other, Fuji with a small smile upon his face, Atobe with a bit of a frown.

'What are we doing here?' Ryoma asked, bemused.

Fuji spread out his hands to gesture at the table in front of them, which held one cup of black coffee (in front of Atobe), one cup of green tea (in front of Fuji), and one cup of café au lait.

'We're at a café, Echizen. What do you suppose we're doing?' Fuji's smile grew wider.

Ryoma felt like rolling his eyes. 'But why am I here?'

Atobe's frown grew more pronounced. 'You should sound more grateful because I'm treating you to a drink in a most prestigious café.'

Ryoma looked around again. Nothing particularly special. He looked at the café au lait in front of him. Nothing special there either. 'Prestigious?'

'The best café in Tokyo,' Atobe said with a bit of arrogance, as if he was the one who owned the café. (And Ryoma didn't doubt that said owning was definitely possible, considering Atobe's wealth.)

'But why am I here with the two of you?' Ryoma raised an eyebrow.

Fuji said slowly, as if speaking to a small toddler, 'Well, Atobe here wanted to ask you out for a date, and I couldn't help but tag along.'

Ryoma's eyebrow stayed raised.

Atobe replied, 'I want to know what's wrong,' completely ignoring Fuji.

'As do I, Echizen,' Fuji added, his expression serious, his blue eyes staring right at him.

Ryoma didn't know why the two of them were so annoying. And persistent. 'Since when did you care, Monkey King?' Ryoma said with a smirk. 'You don't even know me outside of tennis.'

'You still owe me a game!' Atobe dissented. 'A proper one. If you hadn't ran off before the school year ended-'

'I didn't _run off_,' Ryoma said in a low voice. Running off meant being cowardly. Running off meant trying to hide from something, to put as much distance between the fear and himself. Running off meant that he had disappeared willingly.

'I didn't mean it that way, Echizen-' Atobe tried to correct himself, seeing Ryoma's expression, but Fuji interrupted.

'Then what did you do, Echizen?' Fuji said dangerously. 'If you didn't _run_, then what did you do? What would you call vanishing all of a sudden, leaving the job of winning the nationals to your senpai-tachi? What would you call leaving without a word, not telling any of us where you left? What would you call it, _Echizen_?'

Ryoma stared at Fuji, unaccustomed to such behaviour when directed at him. He had seen Fuji acting in such a way before - when playing against Mizuki Hajime. But Fuji was different. He didn't sound only angry... but sad as well.

Ryoma opened his mouth, and found that he didn't have a reply. What could he say? 'I had to leave' wouldn't cut it, as Fuji would have asked for an explanation. Neither would 'I had something to do in America.' He closed his mouth.

Then, a minor miracle happened. His bag started ringing.

At their table of three, all six eyes immediately turned to stare at Ryoma's bag

Ryoma stuck his hand into his bag, pulling out a cell phone. Flipping it open, he answered it hesitantly.

'Hello?'

'Ryoma-san! Where are you?' Ryoma heard Nanako's anxious voice through the cell phone.

'I'm ... out with some other people,' Ryoma replied.

'Oh, it's good that you're out, but you need to come back now, okay? You have an appointment.'

'An appointment?' Ryoma asked, a feeling of dread growing inside of him.

'It's just for a check-up, Ryoma-san, don't worry.' Nanako was attempting to reassure him, but her tone of voice showed that she was worried. Ryoma didn't want to know why she was anxious. 'Do you need a ride?'

'Yes,' Ryoma responded, deciding that he didn't want to ask Atobe to drive him to wherever he needed to go, for more than one reason.

'Where are you?'

Ryoma looked at Atobe, covering the phone's receiver. 'Where are we?'

'Nadoyami Café,' Atobe replied quickly.

Ryoma, taking his hand off of the receiver, replied, 'I'm at Nadoyami Café. Do you know where it is?'

'Yes. I'll come pick you up now, Ryoma-san! I'm very close, so you can come out now.' Nanako hung up. Ryoma flipped the phone closed, and shut his bag.

'I need to leave,' Ryoma said brusquely. He stood up, and left, leaving Atobe and Fuji at the table with three drinks.

x

Fuji, after seeing Ryoma take a few steps away from them, whispered in Atobe's ear, 'An appointment.'

Atobe, having heard those words come from Ryoma's mouth as well, nodded.

'...Are we going to follow?'

Atobe put some money on the table, and the duo watched as Ryoma went out the door. And immediately stood up.

Atobe picked up his own phone, and called his chauffeur.

The two ran to the front of the café, where Atobe's limo was already waiting.

'Where to, Atobe-sama?' The chauffeur asked as the two of them slipped in.

'Follow that car.' Atobe pointed at a car in which two individuals, one with blackish green hair, were sitting. 'But from a bit away.'

'...Hai, Atobe-sama.'

Atobe muttered, 'We don't need them to notice us and then have him disappear on us again.'

The limo started driving, the car a little ways ahead of them as the two vehicles started their journey (though the occupants of one vehicle didn't know their destination quite yet) to the hospital.

x x x

Now, reviews would be perfectly lovely. Wouldn't you love to? Any review will do! (Though long and/or amusing ones are preferred.) Even ones with violent threats for if I don't update are welcome! -awinchan


	10. Apperceived Adversity

**Idyllic Dystopia**

Chapter 9, the catalyst of this drawn-out experiment, is out!

I'm sorry in advance if no update appears next week. xD The muses and plot cats have decided to go on vacation, so it'll probably take an extra week or two before 10 appears.

Anyway, read on!

**Apperceived Adversity**

Ryoma looked about the large hospital warily. Nanako had dropped him off and went to park the car so he wouldn't miss his appointment, but Ryoma somewhat wanted Nanako to be with him, a friendly face in the unfriendly, sanitised clinic who would sit with him while he waited restlessly for the secretary to call his name.

He felt strangely out of place in the clinic. Almost everyone around him was in casts, with crutches propped up next to them, or sitting in wheelchairs. And all of the other people that were as young as him all had some sort of guardian with them, be it somebody who looked like an older sibling, or a parent.

Ryoma really wished that Nanako had come in with him, not caring about whether he was late for his appointment or not.

'Echizen-kun? Tanaka-sensei is ready to see you.' The smiling woman at the counter called out, with her eyes looking at another young boy seated in a wheelchair, with his eyes closed.

Ryoma stood up from his seat rather noisily, and the secretary turned to him, a startled expression on her face. She said uncertainly, 'Echizen-kun?'

Ryoma nodded, and asked brusquely, 'Do I go in there?' He pointed towards a smaller hallway, with fluorescent lights giving the hall an eerie feel.

The secretary nodded. 'The first door to your left...' She paused. 'Where are your parents?'

Ryoma muttered, 'Somebody will be around later,' and headed to the hallway.

x

Atobe and Fuji got off, and stared at their destination.

'Atobe...'

Atobe said, a quaver in his voice, 'We're at a hospital.'

Fuji replied in a composed voice, his usual smile adorning his face, 'I know that, Atobe. I think Ryoma went in through the front.'

Atobe turned to stare at Fuji, and demanded, 'How can you be so calm about this? There's something wrong with Ryoma! There's no other reason that he would come to the hospital!'

Fuji continued to smile, perhaps even more widely. 'Let's go in, or we'll lose him.'

Atobe didn't understand, but followed Fuji through the hospital's imposing doors, dreading what awaited him.

x

'So, Echizen-kun, you'll have to come back every week to do some exercises so we can monitor your physical condition, but you'll have to do the exercises I showed you at home too, okay?'

Ryoma nodded sullenly, his cap in his hand since Nanako had reproached him, saying it was impolite.

The man named Tanaka glanced at Nanako, who was sitting politely, her hands folded on her lap. He said with a smile, 'Make sure he does his exercises, so he can get better.'

Get better. Getting better would mean that he would become normal again, be able to do everything at his original pace...But Ryoma knew better. He wouldn't ever get _better_... He'd just improve a little from how he was, but he wouldn't be the same.

Ryoma knew that his thoughts were horribly negative, but at least he wasn't lying to himself. Realism was better than optimism in his case anyway, as he was less likely to be disappointed.

'Echizen-kun, is it fine with you if we do that then?'

Ryoma said, taken out of his thoughts, 'What?'

Nanako reiterated, 'Tanaka-sensei asked if it was fine with you.'

'Sure,' Ryoma answered inattentively, not particularly concerned about what he was confirming, as his mind was still far off in the realm of cynicism.

The doctor nodded. 'I'm glad that you complied. Sometimes, boys your age complain a lot about it, so I'm glad I don't have to insist on it. A nurse will meet you a bit later for that, so why don't you just sit in the clinic's waiting room until then?'

Ryoma nodded absentmindedly to what the doctor was saying, putting back on his cap in a lopsided fashion, and he and Nanako left the room.

x

'Excuse me, Suzuki-chan, but did a short boy with a cap and blackish-green hair pass by here?'

The woman's eyes widened, and Atobe was sure (though it may have been a trick of the light) that there were sparkles in them. Atobe frowned at the woman's attire, which reminded him of a burriko girl's. The sparkles in her eyes made her look like one of his crazy fangirls, and it disturbed him to see this late-twenties-to-early-thirties woman acting like this in the face of Fuji.

'Oh, you mean that snarky boy?' The woman laughed, her face tinged pink. 'He asked me for directions to the physiotherapy clinic, over there.' The woman pointed to the duo's left. 'You'll see the door on your right. Are you his friends?'

Fuji nodded, an innocent smile on his face. 'Thank you very much!' He headed in the direction that the lady had pointed, with Atobe following.

Once there was sufficient space between the lady and the two of them, Atobe asked, a raised eyebrow, 'Suzuki-chan?'

'It said "Suzuki" on her nametag,' Fuji explained, 'And if I used "-chan", considering her age, she'd probably find it cute and then it'd be more likely that she'd tell us where Echizen went.'

Atobe muttered, 'You're such a calculating...'

'Why, thank you,' Fuji said, but without the smile. 'I wonder where Echizen needs to go to the physiotherapy clinic though.'

Atobe nodded, and the two of them simultaneously started walking down the hall at a brisker pace.

x

Nanako sat beside Ryoma, and desperately tried to think of something to say that hadn't already been said to fill up the silence.

'Ryoma-san...' Nanako started. 'How was your school day then?' She almost wanted to hit herself; she had asked the same question less than five minutes ago.

'Fine' was Ryoma's monotonous response, and the pair fell back into silence.

'Tanaka-sensei is pretty nice, isn't he?' Nanako tried again. 'And the clinic here seems very professional.'

'Yeah,' Ryoma said.

And then quiet ensued.

Nanako really wished that she could verbalise something - anything - that Ryoma would answer to with some kind of enthusiasm. She never had anything much to say, other than the usual polite things, such as 'How was your day' and 'How are you doing', or sometimes 'Do you like your meal', which would result in answers from Ryoma such as 'Fine' or 'Yes'.

In the past, when everything was unchanged, the connection between them, that had previously been there, however obscured, had been there. A connection that Nanako could use to confirm that yes, the two of them were family.

But after the accident, when Ryoma left... Nanako couldn't find that connection any more. It was as if the Ryoma that returned wasn't the Ryoma that had left, as if somewhere, deep inside the shell of the fake Ryoma, the real Ryoma, her relative, was hidden.

And all she was to the fake Ryoma was another polite person that he had no bond to.

Nanako almost wished that they could go back in time, and try to fix everything.

But they couldn't.

'Um, Echizen-kun, and ...' A lady spoke, and the duo both looked up to see a nurse.

Nanako replied, 'Meino Nanako.'

The nurse smiled. 'Well, here it is.'

Nanako noticed the expression on Ryoma's face.

And decided that the scene wasn't going to be pretty.

x

'_What the hell is that for_?'

The voice that shouted out was all too familiar to the brunet and the diva.

They started running down the hallway, and found the door to their right with the "Physiotherapy Clinic" plate on it. They opened the door, to find a glaring Echizen Ryoma and a meek-looking nurse.

Ryoma didn't seem to have noticed their intrusion, so irritated he was.

The nurse replied quietly, 'Tanaka-sensei told me that you had agreed to this...'

'As if I would agree to using such a thing!' Ryoma retorted.

'But if you don't use it, your health could deteriorate more, and-'

Ryoma interrupted, 'I'm walking just fine now, thank you.'

'But in case-' The nurse tried to continue, but was interrupted again.

'Can't I just use crutches?' Ryoma asked.

'In the long term, you won't be able to, and your arms-'

'Then I'll just not run any more!' Ryoma cut the nurse short.

The nurse seemed close to tears. 'Could you please just sit in it? Even though your case is a very mild one...'

Ryoma's voice was low this time. 'I don't care if I have fucking paraplegia. If you think I'm going to bring myself to school in that _thing_, you're mistaken.'

The nurse had no words to say, and the whole clinic was silent. Everyone else who had been sitting there had been listening to their heated (on one side, at least) conversation.

'...Echizen?'

Atobe broke the silence, and he stared at Ryoma and the wheelchair that the nurse was proffering.

Ryoma stared back at Atobe and Fuji, all with their eyes wide open, confused dark blue and shocked light blue ones staring into defiant golden ones.

x x x

Wasn't that just a lovely place to end it off? Now. Lengthy reviews would be delectable, as would reviews saying 'Update soon' or 'Why the hell did you give Ryoma paraplegia?'. nn -awinchan


	11. Canonical Avowal

**Idyllic Dystopia**

Ah, chapter 10 has arrived! I am sorry for the late update. I tried my best to make it long to make up for it, but it didn't work out. xD

And thanks to Eternal.Angel and ChibisukeGirl for editing this! (And catching my idiotic mistakes. xD)

Anyway, I don't own TeniPuri.

**Canonical Avowal **

He was an idiot.

Ryoma had known that everyone would have found out eventually... It wasn't as if he could have hid it from them forever.

But Ryoma felt a twinge of regret. Atobe and Fuji... they shouldn't have found out the way they did.

And then he had run off, out of the hospital, to some park that he couldn't even recognise. Just because he couldn't face them, after the revelation.

_'I don't care if I have fucking paraplegia. If you think I'm going to bring myself to school in that _thing_, you're mistaken.'_

It definitely hadn't been the right way for the two of them to find out.

And his legs were _really_ tired.

He shouldn't have run. He had been avoiding it, but the sudden confrontation took all sense out of his mind.

He really was an idiot.

Ryoma's legs collapsed beneath him, and he sat on the pavement, looking up at the cloudy sky. Even the weather was mocking him.

He took the cap off his head, and glanced over the words on the inside: _Good luck in trying to beat me_.

_Some good luck charm this was_.

x

_'Hey, kid, look at this hat.' The man dangled a cap in front of a young child mockingly, a smirk on his face._

_The child was unimpressed. '...That's an ugly cap, oyaji. What about it?'_

_'What are you saying, brat? It's got your name on it.' The man continued to hold the cap by two fingers, his smirk still plastered on his face._

_'...An R. It's got an R on it.' The child was sceptical, with an eyebrow raised. His name was clearly five letters long._

_The man ignored the child's comment, and continued, 'I got it made for you, so stop being so ungrateful.' _

_'You bought me a _hat_ for my birthday?' The boy asked, sounding even more sceptical than before._

_'Birthday _and_ Christmas, just so you know.' The smirk on the man's face grew wider._

_The child stared incredulously at the man. 'What?'_

_'I'm just _kidding_, geez, boy. Your mother's got your present.'_

_Ryoma almost didn't notice as Echizen Nanjiroh threw the cap high in the air. Ryoma only caught it by the tips of his fingers._

_By the time Ryoma had noticed the scrawled message in the hat, his father had already re-entered the house._

_The boy couldn't help but smile, and entered the house as well._

_'Oi, brat, you like your hat? Smiling from ear to ear, aren't you?'_

_'Shut up, oyaji!'_

_x_

Rinko was in her old office, putting everything back in its place. She hadn't sold it after leaving for America for Ryoma's treatment, for some reason. Perhaps because she knew she was going to return? Or perhaps she was reluctant to leave in the first place.

She still wasn't sure if leaving had been the right choice. The medical care was better in America, but...

Rinko wished that Nanjiroh had been with her to make the decision...

Usually, it was Nanjiroh who had helped her make the choices in regards to Ryoma. It had always been Nanjiroh.

He had been the closest to Ryoma too, despite all of Ryoma's griping and grumbling. The two had shared a bond that she didn't have.

It was always Nanjiroh who would coerce Ryoma into doing something, into talking, by mockingly provoking him, but always with good intentions.

It had been Nanjiroh who had convinced Ryoma that it'd be a good idea to come to Japan in the first place, to leave America. And it had been good for Ryoma, who made so many friends.

Maybe it had been a bad idea, taking Ryoma away from the place that Nanjiroh had told him to go to...

But Rinko wouldn't know.

She never did.

It was always Nanjiroh who knew.

It wasn't like Rinko to be so negative, but Ryoma hadn't been himself for so long... She couldn't find the person she called her son in the blank shell of Ryoma.

And the rain was doing nothing to help her mood. The dark cloudy skies that she could see through her window only reminded her of the incident...

_It had been raining heavily._

_They had been late. _

_She had been so annoyed with him._

_How she regretted it now._

_'I can't believe he's over fifteen minutes late,' she had muttered. _

_She wished that she had said something more complimentary of him..._

_Maybe he would have heard her somehow. _

_She had heard her phone ring, and she had taken it out of her bag. _

_'What's taking you so long?' She had immediately demanded. She knew it was he who was calling; she had set a special ring tone for him. She had had her umbrella up, but could still feel her the bottoms of her pants clinging to her legs. _

_'Ah, Rinko-chan, me and Ryoma just ran into a bit of traffic-'_

_'Where are you?' Rinko had interrupted him. _

_'Almost there! Can you see the car?'_

'You better hurry,' Rinko threatened. 'I have reservations, and they'll give our seats away if we're any later.' She could see a car driving up the street.

_'Fine, fine, Rinko-chan, I'll hurry it up-'_

_Then, Rinko had heard another voice shout. 'Oyaji, turn!'_

_A car sped out of a small road and onto the street they were on._

_'What are you say-' _

_She had heard the start of a reply that was cut off, either because the speaker had stopped speaking, or because the sound of the crash was louder than that of the speaker._

There were no more replies after that.

The umbrella fell to the ground.

Rinko had almost finished filing away her papers when Nanako burst in the open door.

'Aunty!'

Rinko took one look at Nanako's face, dropped her papers, and ran out the door without grabbing her jacket, with Nanako close behind.

She was sure that what she was doing was the right decision.

x

'Atobe, have your men found him?' Fuji asked, his eyes open and full of anxiety.

'_No_,' Atobe replied exasperatedly, his worry evident. 'They're searching the city, but there's been no sighting of him.'

Fuji smiled reassuringly, his eyes closed again. 'I'm sure we'll find him, Atobe.'

Atobe showed his acquiescence by nodding, but he wasn't sure that he truly believed it.

The little brat had run straight out of the clinic, and left Atobe, Fuji, and Nanako there, all uncertain of what to do. Nanako had left to find the boy's mother, so Atobe and Fuji were left in each other's company.

Atobe had been in shock, at first.

He was actually still in shock.

Echizen Ryoma, a paraplegic? It wasn't _right_.

The word paraplegia brought up images of people in wheelchairs, unable to walk by themselves. People who had to be dependent on others to help them around. People who couldn't do things by themselves, couldn't walk, run, play tennis...

Images that Echizen Ryoma simply seemed to utterly defy.

But Ryoma was one of them, one of the people in wheelchairs.

It made Atobe's head spin.

Atobe heard one of his other cellphones ring from his bag, and answered it.

'This is Atobe Keigo.'

'We've found him.'

x

Ryoma was suddenly pulled off the pavement by two men wearing suits looking rather suspicious.

'What are you doing?' Ryoma immediately demanded.

'Atobe-sama requests your presence.' Ryoma wasn't sure which of the two had answered.

'And did _Atobe-sama_ tell you to grab me as well?' Ryoma replied in an annoyed voice. 'I'll walk myself.'

The two men let go, and Ryoma's legs buckled in beneath him again, and he fell once again to the pavement.

A hand reached for him, and Ryoma looked up in surprise at Atobe Keigo, who was smirking down at him.

'Well, look what the monkey dragged in,' Atobe said drily. 'You better get inside the car before it starts raining and my glorious self gets wet.'

'Che,' Ryoma muttered, and took the hand.

After getting into the limo, Ryoma stared at Fuji. 'Fuji-senpai?'

Fuji smiled. 'It's nice to see you too, Echizen.'

Atobe slid in after him, and closed the door.

'Care to explain now, Echizen?'

There was no way he was going to be able to escape it, was there?

Ryoma nodded, and started to speak.

x x x

And there it ends. How was it? Review-worthy? XD I'll try to update next week.

Reviews would be perfectly lovely, no matter how long your review is or what you say. Though long reviews would definitely be appreciated, as would concrit. Anyway, please? -awinchan


	12. Unblemished Percipience

**Idyllic Dystopia**

I'm sorry for not updating last week xD I didn't have time... and I might be not updating in November either because I'm participating in NaNoWriMo, and will be writing (or at least, trying) 50 000 words in November only... But I will try my best to update at least ... twice in November... I'll try!

**x Unblemished Percipience**

'Is there any way-'

'No, Echizen,' Fuji interrupted swiftly. 'You can't get out of this.'

The three of them sat in the limousine for a moment or two in silence. Atobe noticed that the weightiness in the atmosphere was almost palpable.

Then, Ryoma continued.

'I'm assuming you both know that I'm a paraplegic by now.'

The other two nodded silently.

Ryoma said seriously, 'I don't want any word of this to be heard by the other senpai-tachi. Or the other tennis players.'

Ryoma waited patiently for the both of them to acquiesce. Atobe had to think about his answer. It wouldn't be fair of Ryoma to keep this information from his teammates...

'We're fine with it,' Fuji spoke again. 'Right, Atobe?'

Atobe looked at Fuji in surprise, but Fuji appended, 'Echizen will tell them when he's ready.'

Atobe nodded once more.

The boy wonder took a deep breath, and then said, 'I had been in an accident. A traffic accident, with my dad.'

Atobe remembered faintly reading an obituary for Echizen Nanjiroh in the newspaper so long ago.

'There had been a drunk driver. He had just driven out of a street straight into our car. My dad didn't survive.'

'And now, I can't run any more. I can't play tennis. That's all there is to it,' Ryoma finished flatly.

The silence returned, somehow seeming louder than the discourse that Ryoma had given.

'We've arrived.' Ryoma spoke in the same flat tone when the limo slowed to a halt in front of Atobe's mansion.

Ryoma wordlessly got out of the limo, leaving Fuji and Atobe to rearrange their thoughts.

Atobe couldn't help but feel depressed somehow after hearing Ryoma speak. He almost felt... pity for Ryoma. To lose the ability to play tennis before he had a chance to show the world how brilliant he was... Ryoma would never get to play Atobe.

Atobe heard Fuji mutter quietly, 'What _garbage_,' before he stepped out of the limo, and Atobe could only stare at Fuji, wondering what he had meant.

x

Ryoma entered the mansion with its slightly ajar door, to find two especially anxious faces.

'Ryoma! You're okay!' Rinko ran up to the door, and gave Ryoma a hug. 'We were so worried!'

'Are you okay?' Nanako asked worriedly. 'Sit down.' She motioned towards on of the many chairs spread about the lobby of the Atobe mansion.

'Would any of you like something to drink or to eat?' A slim woman spoke to the group as a whole hospitably.

'Oh, no thank you. Would you mind if we let Ryoma sit down though?'

After the woman's reply ('Oh, I don't mind at all!'), Rinko led Ryoma to a chair, and he sat down obligingly, not even muttering a word of protest about being told to be seated. Fuji then entered the mansion, followed by Atobe. The woman slipped out of the room quietly.

'It's nice to see everybody here,' Fuji said cheerfully. 'Hello, Echizen-san. And... This is Meino-san, right?'

Nanako nodded to Fuji. 'Fuji-san. Thank you for taking care of Ryoma.' Nanako smiled widely at the two brunets who had walked in. 'You too, Atobe-san.'

'Ah, it's fine,' Fuji replied politely. 'You should bring Echizen home. I'm sure he needs to rest.'

Nanako replied, 'Excuse us then. Do you need a drive back, Fuji-san?'

Fuji shook his head. 'I'll take the bus.'

Rinko shook her head. 'No, I insist. We wouldn't mind driving Fuji-kun home.'

'Thank you then, Echizen-san, Meino-san.' Fuji turned to address Atobe. 'We'll be leaving then, Atobe. I'll see you some other time.' The contrived smile was perfectly in place.

The four left the room, with Nanako helping Ryoma up, resulting in Atobe standing in the mansion's lobby by himself.

x

'Keigo?'

Atobe turned to face his mother, the slim woman who had left the room upon Fuji and Atobe's entrance, who was looking at him, startled. 'They've left already?' She remarked, 'You should have asked them to stay for tea.'

Atobe nodded. 'Maybe next time then,' he replied absentmindedly, and was taken aback at how easily the words 'next time' had slid out of his mouth.

Atobe Kaeda nodded serenely. 'Invite them over sometime... that poor child...'

Atobe knew without asking that she was referring to Echizen Ryoma, and couldn't help but share her sentiments about said bratty tennis prodigy.

'I mean, not being to play tennis at such a young age! And with his amount of skill too!' Atobe's mother exclaimed. 'What a tragedy. And he's so depressed, it's going to ruin his life if he doesn't get out of the rut he's dug himself into.'

'Mother?' Atobe asked, raising an eyebrow. Had she been able to analyse that all in the short time that Ryoma had been there?

His mother chuckled quietly. 'Oh, I can tell. It's a motherly thing. I mean, I had to bear with you and your mood swings-' Here, Atobe would have squawked if his mother not continued speaking '-That poor boy is wallowing in self-pity. Meeting up more with his friends would help, and I think talking about it would too.' She turned to Atobe, serious. 'Be sure to listen to him, okay, Keigo?'

Then, his mother returned to her usual sunny disposition. 'I wouldn't mind having the other boy over for tea either. Fuji-kun, was it? Fuji-kun and Echizen-kun were both so adorable!'

'Mother!' Atobe admonished, as his mother smiled widely like a young girl who had received a pair of dolls as a surprise present.

'But, anyway, Keigo,' his mother continued, 'Your father and I-' his mother's lips pursed for a second upon mentioning Keigo's father '-will be traversing to Paris for a business trip for the next few weeks, so I would feel better if you moved to our apartment. I don't want you all alone in such a big mansion!'

Atobe acceded. 'Which apartment?'

'Oh, the one that Meino-san lives in!' His mother said with something akin to a grin on her face.

'Meino-san?' Atobe questioned.

'Ah. You know, the pretty girl who was with Echizen-san,' Atobe's mother replied with a twinkle in her eye.

'What?' Atobe's voice rose. 'You want me to live in the penthouse?'

His mother ignored her son's tone of voice. 'Then, you could get your chauffeur to drive Echizen-kun to school too!'

She added, 'I mean, Meino-san has to go back to work, and it's such a _hassle_ for her to drive Echizen-kun to Seishun Gakuen every morning! So I had offered the use of your limousine.'

Atobe wondered how long his mother had been talking with the other two women in the lobby.

And then almost shouted, 'You offered my limo without asking me?'

His mother said in her usual bubbly tone, 'Well, I need to be leaving! The plane for Paris will be leaving in a few hours, so I'll be going along to the airport now. Your father will be waiting for me, and I wouldn't want to keep your father waiting.'

His mother whisked out two suitcases that Atobe was sure hadn't been there before, and disappeared out the front door. 'Go along to the apartment now!'

Atobe sighed as his mother was driven off, and went to his limo.

'Could you drive me to the penthouse?'

The chauffeur necessitated.

**x tsuzuku**

To make sure all of you know (if I had forgotten to state this), this story -will- be an AtoRyo. And reviews would be lovely. -awinchan


	13. Enigmatic Allusions

**Idyllic Dystopia**

Lo and behold, chapter 12! Shocking, is it not? XD I'm sure you all thought the story was dead... if any of you people stuck with it... XD But anyway, please read on! I'm sorry about the delay. I was just kind of 'eeech' about writing this. I'm sorry if this sucks XD

**x Enigmatic Allusions**

The doorbell rang. Many times. The person at the door seemed quite persistent. The ringing of the doorbell resounded through the apartment, loud and rude, a rather offensive wake-up call for the previously sleeping Ryoma.

Ryoma hid his ears under his pillow. He would just sleep a little bit longer. A few more minutes... It couldn't be _that_ late, could it?

Ryoma glanced at the clock on his bedside table. It was... ten minutes before school started.

'Crap,' Ryoma swore, pulling himself off of the bed. Changing quickly and grabbing his stuff, he ran to the door. When he opened it, the entrance revealed an annoyed Atobe Keigo, who stopped ringing the doorbell at once.

'You shouldn't make me wait,' Atobe said, frowning. 'You don't know how long I was ringing the bell.'

Ryoma vaguely remembered Nanako telling him the previous night that she and Rinko were going someplace in the early morning.

'Why are you here?' Ryoma asked grumpily, not appreciating the rude awakening. 'I have to get to school and you're in the way.'

'Exactly,' Atobe replied with a smirk. 'I'm supposed to give you a drive to school, as ... Meino-san, was it? Meino-san shouldn't be bothered to drive you, as she has work.'

Ryoma seemed dispassionate. 'Whatever,' he said, walking past Atobe. 'Just get me to school fast.'

x

'Whoa, who's that in the limo?'

'Is some movie star coming to our school?'

'But the licence plate... it says Atobe on it.'

Ryoma sighed. 'Couldn't you have driven me to school in something less ... eye-catching?'

Atobe replied arrogantly, 'As if I could arrive anywhere in something that was not as beautiful as I was.'

'Then shouldn't you arrive to school in some beaten-up mamachari?' Ryoma said with a smirk before getting out of the limo.

'You brat!' Atobe shouted before the limo sped away.

'Whoa, ochibi!'

Ryoma wheeled around to see Eiji running up to him cheerfully.

'Why did you come to school in a limo?' he asked excitedly.

Ryoma tried to think of something to say to avoid Eiji's question. He really didn't want to explain why Atobe was driving him to school... as he didn't actually understand why himself. 'Kikumaru-senpai, if you don't hurry, you'll be late.'

'Oh yeah!' Eiji said, laughing. 'I'll race you to the doors!'

Ryoma shook his head quickly, thinking of an excuse to say. 'I'll just walk. I don't really care if I'm late or not.'

'Aw, ochibiiiii,' Eiji whined. 'It'd be fun!' He tugged on Ryoma's sleeve.

Ryoma glared at him. 'Kikumaru-senpai, just go, would you?'

Eiji pouted. 'Ochibi's so mean!' But Eiji obliged and ran to the doors, making it in just before the bell rang.

Ryoma sighed. It seemed like he would be late for his class then... He continued to walk.

When he finally reached his classroom, it was about five minutes past. The teacher frowned. 'Echizen-kun, try to make it to class on time.'

Ryoma nodded and took a seat.

Tomoka whispered as he walked by, 'Ryoma-sama, why are you late?' But Ryoma didn't answer.

As the teacher droned on, Ryoma simply let his head droop to the table, and he fell asleep easily.

x

'Sakuno, you're going to practice today, right?'

Sakuno nodded, smiling. Tennis was something she looked forward to now, not only something that she did to impress a certain someone. 'Yup, Tomo-chan. We're just practising though. The ranking matches aren't for a while.'

'Ryoma-sama, you should go watch Sakuno while she practises,' Tomoka said, a twinkle in her eye. 'You could see if she got any better since you last saw her play.'

Sakuno blushed immediately. 'Tomo-chan! I'm sure Ryoma-kun has things to do... and he's not playing tennis any more... so...' Her voice faltered. She couldn't continue. She wouldn't believe it herself if she hadn't heard it from Momo, Ryoma's best friend. She still couldn't really believe it though. Echizen Ryoma not playing tennis? It just seemed wrong to her. He had been the main reason she herself had started playing tennis, and then he just stopped? Momo didn't even know the reason.

Tomoka shouted, 'But I thought that was just a rumour! It is just a rumour, right, Ryoma-sama?'

Ryoma shook his head. 'I'm not playing.' Sakuno's heart fell. If Ryoma said it... there was no way it wasn't true. But... it just couldn't be true. It couldn't.

'What?' Tomoka shouted again. 'But-'

'Osakada, you're loud,' Ryoma said nonchalantly. He stood up from his seat and left the classroom, leaving both a sad Sakuno and a confused Tomoka.

'Sakuno...' Tomoka said quietly.

'_What's wrong with my Ryoma-sama_?' she asked, pained.

Sakuno replied simply, 'I don't know, Tomo-chan. I don't know.'

x

Ryoma decided that he might as well just head home. Nanako would probably be there to drive him...

But instead, he simply found a limousine at the front of the school. He stopped in his tracks. It had to be Atobe.

Maybe he shouldn't go to the limousine. Ryoma didn't really feel like indulging in Monkey King's company anyway...

He found himself unwittingly following a path to the tennis courts. He didn't seem to be able to turn himself around... or maybe it was because he didn't want to turn anyway. Tennis wasn't something he could just _stop_ playing. Tennis was his life, and it was stripped away from him...

He looked at the tennis courts. Oishi and Eiji were playing against Momo and Kaidoh, who were losing quite badly, from the looks of it. Some guy who seemed vaguely familiar to Ryoma had forgotten and Taka-san were playing as well. Tezuka was watching the scene, with Fuji behind him.

Fuji suddenly turned in Ryoma's direction. Ryoma was still a ways away, and he was sure that Fuji wouldn't be able to spot him.

'Echizen!'

Ryoma had thought wrong.

Fuji left the courts to run up to him, smiling. 'Fancy seeing you here today, Echizen. I figured that you would have gone home already!'

Ryoma frowned. 'Fuji, shouldn't you be practising?'

Fuji continued to smile. 'I was just watching over everyone with Tezuka,' he said lightly. 'He just refused to play a match with me, and there was no other regular to play with.'

No other regular... Ryoma realised that there had to be someone to replace him on the team. 'Did Taka-san take my place then?' Ryoma asked, curious despite himself.

Fuji nodded. 'And you won't _guess_ who got Taka-san's spot,' Fuji said, smiling widely.

'...It's not Horio, right?'

Fuji gave a chuckle. 'Of course not. Even with his ... five years of tennis experience now, I believe, he wouldn't match up at all to any of the regulars. No, we have Katou-kun as our reserve.'

'Katou-kun?' Ryoma asked. Then, he remembered the first year that had been in the tennis club with him. 'Really?' he said, a bit surprised.

Fuji nodded. 'He's doing really well now,' he said cheerfully. 'You would be shocked to see. You want to come look, just from outside the courts?'

'...Sure,' Ryoma said, smiling genuinely.

'Fuji, get back to practice!' Tezuka ordered.

'All right, all right,' Fuji said innocently. 'Coming, Tezuka!'

Fuji jogged back to the courts, and beckoned to Ryoma behind him. 'Just stand outside and watch. You can see how we've improved.'

x

The little brat really was taking his time, Atobe fumed. He had to have been waiting more than twenty minutes now. What could he have been _doing_?

He got out of the limousine, cursing. Ryoma was probably hiding somewhere, laughing at him as he waited for him pointlessly. The diva decided that he might as well go to the tennis courts first. Where else would Ryoma go?

Atobe headed for the tennis courts, with no need to ask anybody for directions. He reached the courts and spotted a capped individual standing from the outside, peering within.

It was a strange sight, to see Echizen Ryoma standing outside the courts instead of playing on the courts themselves. Atobe wondered how Ryoma was feeling, looking in from the outside for once.

'Oi, brat! I must have been waiting for you for an _hour_, you know-'

Atobe would have continued ranting had he not seen Ryoma's expression upon turning around.

It was something rather pitiful. A sad, forlorn sort of face, the expression one that was defeated would have. An expression that did not belong on Echizen Ryoma's face.

'Echizen?' Atobe asked slowly.

Ryoma smirked, but his eyes still held the despondency that he was openly showing earlier. 'Let's go then, Monkey King.'

Atobe didn't retort, but simply gestured for Ryoma to follow.

x

'Fuji, you know you aren't supposed to leave the court in the middle of practice,' Tezuka said sternly.

'Yeah, yeah,' Fuji said, watching as Ryoma and Atobe left. They had been speaking rather loudly, but the conversation didn't make sense. Why did Atobe stop speaking so abruptly? Why did he not argue to Ryoma's objectionable use of his nickname? And why wasn't he paying attention to what Tezuka was saying?

'Fuji, ten laps,' Tezuka said, frowning. 'And then you can play a practice match with Momo.'

'Hai,' Fuji said cheerfully, starting his ten laps. He had to cleanse his mind of all things Atobe and Ryoma, and focus on the matter at hand.

Which was running. Which wasn't nearly as interesting.

But what was Atobe doing at Seigaku anyway? Had he come to Seigaku to specifically see Ryoma? Why would he do that?

He wouldn't...right?

Fuji stopped his running immediately. Why had Atobe been looking for Ryoma? There was no other reason for Atobe to come. If he had come to speak with Tezuka or anybody else, he would have simply spoke to them and left. Why had Atobe been waiting for Ryoma? Why, why, why?

Why couldn't he just get the two of them off his mind... or rather...

Why couldn't he get Ryoma off his mind?

**x tsuzuku**

And there it is. Did it make sense? XD I had kind of forgotten about the story so this may seem a bit... off.

Now, wouldn't a review be just lovely? -awinchan


	14. Discommodious Unveiling

**Idyllic Dystopia**

Another update, scarce in my world of fanfiction. xD Chapter 13 finally comes into existence, with no real advancing in the plot, I think, except for a few little hints and tugs as to where the story is going. But I think things will start moving along next chapter.

**x Discommodious Unveiling**

'Where are we going?' Ryoma demanded, his fingers tapping impatiently on the limousine window as the limo sped past Nanako's apartment. He wasn't in the best of moods; seeing his ex-team mates playing so cheerfully on the courts had caused that. He glared at the brunet sitting across from him, who was smirking in a way that made Ryoma want to punch him. (The fact that Ryoma often had such a smirk on his face made him even more annoyed.)

Atobe replied loftily, 'I'm allowing you to bask in my presence for a bit longer as we go out for dinner.'

'It's too early for dinner,' Ryoma said, irritated. 'I want to go home.' He continued to drum his fingers on the window rhythmically in an absentminded manner.

Atobe sighed. 'Is my generosity too great for you?' The glare from Ryoma assured him that it wasn't. He spoke to the driver. 'Could you please return us to the apartment?'

'Wait,' Ryoma interrupted. The drumming stopped. 'I don't want to go back there.'

'Then what do you want?' Atobe said, a bit exasperated. 'I asked you to eat dinner with me, and you said you wanted to go home. And now I'm taking you home, you don't want to go back?' He stared straight into Ryoma's defensive golden eyes, wondering what thoughts were running through the younger boy's head.

'I don't want to go back there,' Ryoma said quietly, the fact that he was merely a child showing through. 'I want to go home.'

x

Atobe watched silently as Ryoma walked up to his old house. Atobe simply followed, not knowing what to say. There were hundreds of sentences that Atobe was playing out in his head, trying to find one that would be appropriate for his situation, but he couldn't. Saying a compliment about the house wouldn't be the most proper, considering the fact that Ryoma had been to Atobe's mansion and would know that whatever Atobe said about the boy's previous lodgings would be contrived. He couldn't ask why Ryoma had _left_ either, because Atobe already knew that answer.

Ryoma stood in front of his old house's door, his hand poised as if to knock. He hesitated, and Atobe, once again, wondered about Ryoma's thoughts.

Ryoma dropped his hand to his side, and headed for the back of the house. Atobe just followed, feeling a bit out of place and strangely disconnected from the paraplegic.

There was a large bell, Atobe noticed. A temple bell. There was a temple behind Ryoma's house. There had to be an interesting story to tell about that, and it seemed like an apt starting point of a conversation.

'What's this temple doing behind your house?' Atobe said, nodding at the large bell. Ryoma gave a noticeable shiver, and Atobe wanted to hit himself. It wasn't _Ryoma's_ house any more, and the reason was obviously something Ryoma didn't want to talk about.

Nevertheless, Ryoma answered, rolling his eyes. 'The old man wanted to buy a lot with a big yard so he could make a tennis court.'

Atobe suddenly became aware of the tennis court that was a little ways away from the house. 'And this temple was just for sale?' Atobe asked, a bit incredulous.

Ryoma nodded, directing his attention to the tennis court as well. 'The old owner was close to dead, and since the old man had promised to take care of the temple for him, the old owner sold it.' He chuckled softly. 'Can't say that anybody else would have wanted to stay at some ancient temple to ring a bell for the rest of his life, though he certainly didn't stay to ring it for long.'

Ryoma stood still, staring at the court with a despondency that seemed so wrong on the face of a teenager. Teens were supposed to be bratty, yes. Rude, yes. Make bad choices, yes. But to look as if their whole life had been torn away from them?

Atobe had to say something to break the silence. It bothered him, tugged at him, this awkward pause in which neither of them had anything to tell.

'Would you like to go out for dinner?' Atobe finally asked.

x

The discomfort was palpable, as Ryoma and Atobe sat at a little square table set for two. The white tablecloth draped over the table's edges, with a simple lace design at its own edge. Ryoma had never seen the flowers that were in the small vase on the table before.

Ryoma stared at his empty plate, with numerous cutleries surrounding it. What were the two knives for? The spoons? The forks? Why couldn't they just use chopsticks and be done with it? It was making him nervous, all those fork prongs and sharp knives. What was the point of having different sized forks and spoons anyway?

'Here.' Atobe handed Ryoma a menu, and then focussed his attention on a menu of his own. Ryoma flipped open the menu to find many different meals. None of which he recognised. Were they in French? In German? He could make out some of the words, which looked vaguely English (but weren't, really), but that didn't help Ryoma much in his meal choosing.

'What would you like this evening, sirs?' A waiter asked, decked in a Western-style suit, with a starched towel in one hand and a reverential expression on his face.

Atobe said something that Ryoma couldn't understand, with its garbled syllables and strange pronunciation. He then turned to Ryoma. 'What would you like, Echizen?'

Ryoma stared dubiously. The idiot didn't actually believe that Ryoma could _read_ the menu, could he? He said to the waiter, 'I'll just have whatever he's having.'

The waiter stared at him for a second, in apparent disbelief. 'Excuse me sir, but may I ask something?' Ryoma just nodded. 'Are you Echizen Ryoma, the tennis prodigy?'

If Ryoma had been drinking anything, he would have spat it out. As it was, he didn't say anything, but nodded again.

The waiter fished out a notepad from one of his pockets, with a pen attached to it, and proffered it. 'Could you please give me your autograph, Echizen-kun? My daughter follows all of your matches in the sports magazines, and she would be so happy if she could just have your autograph, sir.'

Ryoma, despite looking horrified, signed his name in English characters, albeit with a tremor in his handwriting. He handed the notepad back to the waiter.

'If I may ask, sir,' the waiter spoke again, 'will you be returning to tennis soon? My daughter was devastated when you left Japan, sir.'

Ryoma shook his head. 'I'm sorry,' he muttered.

The waiter left silently, resulting in yet another silence between Atobe and Ryoma. No words were spoken at all until the meals arrived, with Ryoma absentmindedly thinking about whether whatever meal Atobe had ordered was edible or not.

Upon looking at the meal, Ryoma decided promptly that, no, the meal was indeed inedible.

'Monkey King,' Ryoma started suspiciously, 'is this supposed to be what I'm going to eat for _dinner_? I wish I had just gone to eat burgers.'

And there was another waiter at their table almost instantaneously. 'Sir, is there something about the course that displeases you?'

Ryoma stared at the small blob in the middle of the large plate, covered in a sauce of questionable origin. Actually, the blob was of questionable origin as well. The boy wonder couldn't tell if it was meat, vegetable, rock, or whatever. There were a few sprigs of a plant on the side of the plate that did look fit for human consumption though. But only a few.

'He does not know what he is saying,' Atobe interjected hastily before Ryoma could give a snarky reply. The waiter nodded, though he looked slightly insulted and distressed.

'Echizen,' Atobe said seriously, his voice low, 'you are in a five-star restaurant. The only reason that we had been able to get a table at this restaurant without reservations months beforehand is that I am an Atobe.' Ryoma scoffed slightly; Atobe could never keep his self-deferential thoughts out of his speech for long. Atobe continued, 'The meal that is in front of you has a cost that is exponentially larger than that of the... burger, that you normally consume.'

Atobe took a knife in one hand and the larger fork in the other, and started eating, a haughty frown on his face.

'So what do you want?' Ryoma responded, irritated.

Atobe's eyebrow rose. 'What do you mean?'

'You wouldn't take me out to some rich restaurant for no reason,' Ryoma explained, though the look on his face clearly expressed that he didn't believe that the meal in front of him was worth its price tag. 'You had to have had some sort of reason.'

Ryoma persisted after Atobe didn't offer a reply. 'You don't just ask somebody out for no reason, Monkey King.'

And only after the sentence had come out of his mouth did Ryoma realise how utterly discomfiting it sounded.

**x tsuzuku**

Reviews would be magically lovely. A particularly guilt-inducing review made me write this chapter, at least. XD But reviews would be lovely. XD Those were not-so-subtle hints. Maybe you can expect an update next Wednesday! -awinchan


	15. Foreordained Compliance

**Idyllic Dystopia**

Chapter 14, already xD Shocking, isn't it? Though this isn't the Wednesday update promised, real life got in the way. I think antiTHESIS will be updated by next weekend. I think. No guarantees though. n.n"_  
_

**x Foreordained Compliance**

_You don't just ask somebody out for no reason, Monkey King.'_

Atobe watched as Ryoma realised that what he had said sounded awfully awkward.

Atobe pondered for a moment. Why had he brought Ryoma out with him for dinner? Atobe had been planning on going out to eat, his parents being in Paris for his father's business trip. As he had had to pick up Ryoma from Seigaku... well, he hadn't needed to bring Ryoma along with him.

'Is my generosity too great for you to comprehend?' Atobe conclusively replied, skilfully breaking the pregnant pause that Ryoma had created.

Ryoma offered no reply, choosing to stare at his meal in silence. Atobe, more because he had to do _something_ rather than being hungry, started to eat with fork and knife.

Ryoma continued to stare at his meal though, and Atobe couldn't help but wonder what was on the kouhai's mind. Had there been some sort of message to what Ryoma had said earlier? Atobe's mind was working at full pace, trying to figure out Ryoma's silence. Atobe _had_ asked him out to dinner; the least Ryoma could do was try to keep up a decent conversation.

Did Ryoma honestly feel that Atobe would do nothing that would not reap him some sort of profit? That would make Atobe like his father, and there was no way that Atobe wanted to be like that heartless man who would drag Atobe's mother around only for show. Atobe would feel quite horrible if Ryoma truly felt that Atobe's bringing him to dinner had some ulterior motive.

Though Atobe himself wasn't sure about the reason.

'Is there something you want to say?' Atobe prompted, trying to coax Ryoma into some sort of dialogue.

'How the hell am I supposed to eat this thing?'

And Atobe wanted to slam his head against the table for even _thinking_ that Ryoma would be bothered by anything less than trivial.

x

Ryoma didn't want to be sitting in a five-star restaurant. Ryoma really didn't want to be anywhere, let alone with Atobe Keigo, with whom Ryoma had practically nothing in common.

Atobe was rich. Ryoma was not. Atobe went to Hyoutei. Ryoma went to Seigaku. Atobe played tennis. Ryoma did not. Atobe had two parents. Ryoma had one.

Atobe Keigo almost embodied whom Ryoma wanted to be at the moment - a healthy and maybe a bit too arrogant teenaged boy playing tennis with both parents. That was really all Ryoma wanted. Except Ryoma could never get it.

And there Atobe went, reminding Ryoma every day of what Ryoma _could_ have but did not, keeping Ryoma from just _getting_ _on_ with his life and leaving the past behind. Why did Atobe have to choose now of all times to butt into Ryoma's life, when they previously had no real contact outside of tennis?

Ryoma could avoid his teammates. None of them were in his classes anyway, and he didn't have to see them when he went to school and when he went home, as they had their practices and such then. Ryoma didn't see any people from the other teams as he didn't go buy tennis supplies or play on the street courts.

But Atobe... Ryoma couldn't avoid him. Atobe seemed to be making it a point to be just _there_ whenever Ryoma didn't want to see him. (Which was all the time.) It was as if Atobe had Ryoma on his fishing line and didn't release Ryoma nor did he reel him in, so Ryoma was just left _dangling_, with no way of moving forward or back.

'Is there something you want to say?' Atobe said, breaking Ryoma out of his thoughts.

Ryoma just chose a snarky reply from his immeasurable repertoire of them. 'How the hell am I supposed to eat this thing?' This got the desired effect; Atobe looked like he had been slapped in the face.

'You eat it like any other meal,' Atobe replied.

'With chopsticks?' Ryoma asked drily. In Ryoma's mind, any meal that couldn't be eaten without utensils other than a pair of chopsticks really wasn't a good meal at all.

Atobe sighed. 'You've been in America for most of your life. I'm sure you've eaten with a fork and knife before.'

Ryoma didn't want to be condescended to by somebody who had everything. The comment by Atobe, in itself, was not much. After all, Atobe was just commenting on Ryoma's eating habits. But Ryoma had had enough. Why did Atobe think he could just barge into Ryoma's life as if he was some friend? Why couldn't he just back off and leave Ryoma alone? He didn't need somebody talking about _America_, America was where Ryoma had undergone therapy just to be able to function as he was now. America was where Ryoma had hoped he would regain his tennis-playing abilities, and where his hopes had been crushed.

Ryoma snapped. 'I didn't _ask_ to be brought out to some five-star restaurant! I just want to be at home...' And then Ryoma shut his mouth. His home wasn't his home any more. His father wasn't at home, ringing the temple bell, or reading his magazines. His father wasn't going to be at Ryoma's tournaments in his monkish clothes, making Ryoma outwardly angry but secretly pleased. Hell, Ryoma wasn't even going to _be_ at tournaments any more.

Ryoma stood up, and said flatly, 'Thank you for the meal,' before leaving the restaurant.

x

Atobe watched, mouth wide open, as Echizen Ryoma fled the restaurant.

'...Sir, would you like me to take that meal back to the chef? We are very sorry that one of our patrons has found the meal unsatisfactory...'

Atobe waved the waiter away, and simply pulled enough bills out of his wallet to pay for both of the meals. 'It's fine,' he said, before running out (in a very undignified and un-Atobe manner) after the ex-tennis wonder, not before thinking that his reputation in this particularly restaurant was ruined. Having to run out of a restaurant so hurriedly...

He found the capped boy sitting just outside the restaurant, panting. Atobe frowned; had such meagre exercise already tired the boy? Ryoma was facing away from Atobe, his shoulder against the wall.

'Echizen?' Atobe called out softly. The boy didn't turn to face him, choosing instead to continue staring up at the sky.

'It really sucks, you know that?' Ryoma said quietly, still looking up at the already dark sky. 'One minute everything's fine, and then the next, everything blows up in your face.'

Atobe didn't say anything. He figured that his saying anything wouldn't help, so he just listened.

Atobe could hear Ryoma straining to keep his voice under control. 'I know my dad isn't just going to pop back into my life. I know that I'm not going to get better. But it sucks, missing out on things that everyone else around you has.'

'But I can't help but want _everything_ back, my dad, tennis, being able to run...' Ryoma hugged his knees to his chest.

Atobe left the silence as it was; it didn't seem as though breaking the quiet was the right thing to do. Slowly and awkwardly, Atobe walked to Ryoma and stuck a hand out, his lips closed tightly together.

Ryoma looked at him a bit curiously, but took the hand, and didn't protest as Atobe enveloped him in his arms.

Atobe didn't point out that his Hyoutei uniform was getting wet with Ryoma's tears falling on his shoulder, letting Ryoma cry silently.

If Atobe had heard Ryoma's sniffle, he pretended not to.

'Atobe?' Ryoma's voice was muffled from speaking into Atobe's shirt.

'I won't say a word of this to anyone,' Atobe murmured back, and then let his arms fall limply to his side.

'...Actually, I was going to say that I was kind of hungry,' Ryoma said, a small smile on his face. Atobe hadn't remembered Ryoma ever smiling at him. There were only smirks and leers and maybe even a cheeky grin, but never such a smile. There was a vast difference in Ryoma's face; there seemed to be a glow in his eyes there hadn't been before. 'The food in there looked _terrible_.' And then Ryoma had fell back to his smirk, the spark in his eyes gone. 'Can we eat something _decent_?'

'The meal that you could have eaten at the restaurant-' Atobe started, before being interrupted.

'Tastes nowhere near as good as a burger,' Ryoma finished, still smirking, keeping the mood light, though his eyes were a bit red and there were tear streaks on his face.

Atobe pulled a cell phone out of his bag to check the time. 'Shit,' Atobe swore. It was late. He still had homework to do.

'Maybe some other time,' Atobe said absentmindedly, inadvertently suggesting another outing in the near future. 'We have to get back.'

'We?' Ryoma asked, and Atobe realised that Ryoma had not yet been informed that Atobe was the one who owned the penthouse of the apartment in which Ryoma stayed at.

'Yes. We,' Atobe said shortly. He called up his chauffeur, who arrived in mere minutes. 'Let's get in then.'

'What do you mean "we"?' Ryoma persisted.

Atobe dearly wanted to roll his eyes. 'I mean "we" as in you and me, as in Echizen Ryoma and Atobe Keigo. Meaning that _we_ are going back to the apartment.'

'But why are you going there?' Ryoma kept up his line of questioning.

Atobe gave in. 'I live there, brat. Will you just shut _up_ now?'

And shut up Ryoma did, but for a very different reason. A reason that came with a loud ring tone.

'Oh, that's mine,' Ryoma said, pulling his cell phone out and answering it. 'Yes?' he drawled, and Atobe had to marvel at how Ryoma could answer the phone in such a rude way.

'Oh. Okay. With Atobe. Yes. In his limo. Now? But- Can't it wait? Fine. Bye.' The frown on Ryoma's face grew more pronounced with each word he said, before hanging up.

'Would you mind just dropping me off at the hospital instead?'

**x tsuzuku**

To hopefully be continued soon. xD I think I will alternate between updating antiTHESIS and Idyllic Dystopia, so updates will probably be biweekly from now on. Reviews would be lovely. xD There's nothing better than arriving at an inbox with reviews after a harrowing experience with real life. -awinchan


	16. Bilateral Comprehension

**Idyllic Dystopia**

Ah, I'm keeping to my schedule quite well. This chapter is bothering me though; it just irks me. Ick. But yeah, here it is.

**x Bilateral Comprehension **

The nurse was positively terrified of approaching Ryoma, let alone speaking to him

The nurse was positively terrified of approaching Ryoma, let alone speaking to him. Her hands trembled as she held onto her clipboard. Atobe remembered distinctly that this nurse was the same nurse that Ryoma had swore at previously, which explained her nervousness.

'Um, Echizen-kun-'

'What?' Ryoma snapped, looking irate.

Atobe tried fruitlessly to hide a chuckle behind his hand, which Ryoma glared at him for. 'What's so funny?'

Atobe waved his hand. 'Nothing, nothing.' To the nurse, he put on a refreshing smile, meant to be reassuring, meant to say that Ryoma was stupid and not worth listening to. 'You'll have to excuse him. He's just a little bratty.'

'Who are you calling bratty?'

Atobe continued, 'Echizen-san had to leave for work, so I'll be here with Echizen, if you don't mind.' He widened his smile.

The nurse shook her head vehemently. 'No, it's p-perfectly fine!' she stuttered. 'Tanaka-sensei will be here shortly.' The nurse fled, leaving the room with the two opposing auras behind- Atobe's benevolent one and Ryoma's murderous one.

'You could try to be civil,' Atobe lectured, his rich-boy tendencies coming out.

'Shut up, Monkey King.'

Atobe smirked. 'It's not my fault that your mother specifically requested that I stay. Seemed to think that somebody would need to keep you in check, and she was definitely right. You would have terrorised that poor nurse.'

'It's not my fault she was being _stupid_,' Ryoma muttered. The nurse had done nothing outside of asking if Ryoma needed anything.

Atobe made a 'tsk' sound. 'She was just trying to help.'

'I didn't _need_ any help,' Ryoma growled, tilting the cap down.

At that moment, a tall man entered, smiling at the two of them. 'Ah, Echizen-kun! It's nice to see you again. I'm Tanaka, if you don't remember.'

'Not likewise,' Ryoma grumbled, making the man laugh. Atobe looked positively scandalised.

'And who would you be?' Tanaka turned to Atobe. 'Ah, wait. I remember you. You were here when we asked the boy to sit in a wheelchair.' Tanaka chuckled, but Atobe could find nothing too funny about that.

'Atobe Keigo,' he replied nonetheless, proffering his hand, which Tanaka-sensei shook. The man's eyes widened just a tad, but he said nothing else to the brunet.

'Well, we'll just do a few exercises today, okay? Things to keep your feet working as well as they are.'

'Are there any exercises that would make them _better_?' Ryoma asked, raising an eyebrow and looking up at Tanaka challengingly. Atobe couldn't believe how _rude_ Ryoma was being. Had he never been taught to respect his elders? Or anyone, for that matter?

'We'll see about that,' Tanaka replied lightly, and Atobe couldn't help but think that the man was handling the situation wonderfully. 'Just walk around the room a bit, so I can see how you are.'

Tanaka stuck out a hand, intending to help Ryoma up, but Ryoma stood up by himself, still glaring. He walked around with easy, slow strides.

The physiotherapist nodded. 'That's very good, Echizen-kun. Most people with paraplegia-'

'Can't walk, and even when they can move their legs the movement is only minor,' Ryoma interrupted. 'Tanaka-sensei, I've heard this all before.'

'But it is astounding, Echizen-kun, that you can still function so-'

'I've heard this all before,' Ryoma replied disrespectfully. 'That doesn't help me much. How can I get better?'

'Echizen,' Atobe said admonishingly, shocked by Ryoma's outright boorish behaviour. The man _was_ trying to help him, so Ryoma could at least try to be polite.

'It's fine,' Tanaka said, grinning at Atobe. 'I'm used to boys like him.'

'Now, Echizen-kun,' Tanaka started, 'you're not going to get much better. Especially if you keep on straining your legs like you are.' Tanaka gave Ryoma's legs a calculating gaze. 'You shouldn't run on those, or even walk too fast. It would be best if you rode a wheelchair for at least a few-'

'I am not going to sit in some thing for invalids,' Ryoma said angrily.

Tanaka held up a hand, stopping Ryoma's protests. 'It was just a suggestion. It would definitely help with healing your legs a bit more, to the extent that walking, and maybe jogging would be simple exercise for you.'

Tanaka sighed though. 'Granted, you won't be able to run as fast as before, but you'll be able to be yourself. It'd be best if you stopped playing sports.'

Ryoma's response was so quiet that Atobe almost missed it, having been already used to listening to Ryoma's outbursts. 'But how can I be myself if I can't play tennis?'

'Is that all?' Ryoma said, staring at the physiotherapist, whose arms were now crossed in front of him.

Tanaka held out a sheet for Ryoma, which he took. 'A list of exercises for you to do. Please, don't do too many at once. Doing more than the specified amount of exercises will only make your legs worse.'

Ryoma left the room wordlessly, the sheet held in a clenched fist.

Atobe started an apology, but Tanaka stopped him before he could finish. 'It's fine,' he said, a strange smile on his face. 'You don't have to apologise for him. Go make sure he doesn't do anything rash, okay?'

Atobe obliged, running out of the room after Ryoma, who was already halfway down the hallway and walking very fast for somebody who wasn't supposed to be straining his legs.

x

_It'd be best if you stopped playing sports_.

The sentence rang in Ryoma's head over and over, but the word 'sports' was replaced with 'tennis'.

_It'd be best if you stopped playing tennis._

It hurt Ryoma's brain. He lived for tennis. His goals were all based on tennis. His aspirations were all based on tennis. He had hoped for a future career in tennis. Hell, even his friends were from tennis teams. To take away tennis was to take away his life.

What was Ryoma without tennis? Was there a Ryoma without tennis?

Ryoma with tennis was snarky, accomplished, nearly sociable, admired, and _strong_. Ryoma with tennis was happy.

Then what was Ryoma now?

Ryoma continued to walk down the hospital hallway, not taking in his surroundings, not taking in the rapid footsteps of Atobe running up behind him, not taking in the secretary who questioned kindly, 'Echizen-kun, where are you going?'

'Echizen!'

Ryoma could vaguely hear, at the edge of his consciousness, somebody shouting his name.

'Echizen!'

The voice sounded closer. Ryoma kept walking, exiting the physiotherapy clinic through the door, and going into the main hospital.

'Ryoma.'

Ryoma heard his name and spun around to see an Atobe Keigo stopping right in front of him.

'You can get away quite fast for somebody who's paraplegic,' Atobe said drily.

'I can't play tennis any more,' Ryoma said bluntly.

Atobe shrugged. 'And why does that matter? At least you're still alive, right?'

Atobe was being rather callous, Ryoma thought, for one who played tennis on a national level. 'What do you mean, _why does that matter_?' Ryoma asked plainly. He could feel his fists (when had they become fists?) shaking at his sides.

'Tennis isn't everything, Ryoma,' Atobe said gently.

'Then what is?' Ryoma challenged. Ryoma couldn't fathom that anything was more important than tennis. His lifelong dream had been to simply beat his father in a tennis match.

Atobe had nothing to say, his mouth thin. He opened his mouth and then closed it again, looking helpless.

'I knew it,' Ryoma mumbled, and he continued to walk down the hallway, feeling, for some reason, just a bit disappointed.

x

Atobe only watch Ryoma's retreating back. He stood in the hallway, the physiotherapy clinic door directly behind him.

He couldn't deny that tennis was important. He himself trained daily to improve his own tennis, and help others with theirs. The diva looked forward to his matches, the tournaments, the friendly games, the practice. Everything he did was in the end, somehow connected to tennis.

The only reason he was even here with Ryoma was because of tennis, wasn't it?

...But was it, really? He had gone far from the casual observer, analysing his previous opponent. It wasn't even a friendly rivalry that he had with Ryoma; Atobe knew (and there was no way to deny it) that Ryoma was not up to his own tennis standards any more.

Ryoma had somewhere, along the way, fell into Atobe's category of 'acquaintance', or maybe even the rather diminutive grouping of 'friend'.

That explained quite well why Atobe had felt as if his heart was being wrenched out when the younger boy escaped with such a forlorn look in his eyes. What would friends be if they didn't look out for each other and try and help each other during hard times?

Atobe decided promptly that the best thing to do would be to confront Ryoma and get him out of his depression. If Atobe didn't do so, he wouldn't be fit to be called an Atobe anyway.

He walked out of the hospital with a spring in his step, a newfound purpose in his association with Ryoma, and cursed after he realised that the limo in which he had been driven to the hospital in was gone.

And all pretences of friendship were dropped when Atobe came to the conclusion that Ryoma must have taken Atobe's limousine back to the apartment.

x

Ryoma sighed, lying on the couch in Nanako's apartment. He was glad that his cousin wasn't home, or he would have to tell her about what Tanaka-sensei had said to him. No more tennis. The man had to be kidding him.

And then Atobe had gone quite insane, telling Ryoma that tennis wasn't everything and such. If tennis wasn't everything, what was?

He felt somehow let down by Atobe. Had he been hoping for somebody to explain to him that there was something other than tennis? Something that could be better? ...But it was completely illogical for him to place such high hopes on Monkey King.

Ryoma _had_ tried to play tennis. Two months after the accident, over in America. He couldn't even do his almost infamous Split Step. But maybe it was fitting. He would never be able to surpass his father this way.

He had a horrible headache, possibly from thinking too much into the past. He went to the kitchen, and found the bottle of headache pills. Opening it with a bit of difficulty because of the childproof cap, he took out a few pills and popped them into his mouth, dry swallowing them. His headache was not helped at all, and Ryoma swallowed a few more.

And somehow, the container was emptied.

Ryoma stood in a daze for a while, with no idea of what to do. He didn't have homework... at least he didn't think he did. He didn't feel like watching TV or reading a book. What Ryoma _really_ wanted to do was play tennis, and he wasn't going to be able to do that any time soon, was he?

All of a sudden, Ryoma felt woozy, and slumped to the floor, unconscious.

x

Atobe was frankly, very annoyed with Echizen Ryoma, for one, abandoning him at the hospital, and two, taking one of the Atobe family limousines with him, and three, abandoning Atobe! And three was a different reason than two because abandoning somebody as great as himself was so horrible that it deserved two separate points.

So when Atobe went through the Meino residence's open door, he didn't think about _why_ the door would have been open.

'Echizen!' he shouted. Nobody answered. If Ryoma was trying to _hide_ from him, especially after taking his limousine... (And forcing Atobe into calling up another one. The Atobe mansion was _quite_ far from the hospital, and Atobe had had to wait a whole ten minutes while the limousine came.)

Atobe wandered through the apartment, looking for Ryoma. He found him in the kitchen, sitting on the floor with his back to a counter.

'Echizen!'

Ryoma's eyes were closed. He seemed to be sleeping.

Atobe stormed over to wake him up and lecture him for a good five minutes at least. But then he saw the empty bottle of headache pills lying on the counter.

'Echizen?' Atobe said. He shook the boy's shoulder slightly, but there was no response.

Atobe was panicking. 'Echizen! Wake up!' Atobe shook the boy harder, but to no avail. Ryoma remained obstinately unconscious.

'Echizen, please, wake up!' Atobe continued, a tremor in his voice. He shook Ryoma by the shoulders. 'Please.'

'...Atobe?'

'Echizen?'

Ryoma's eyes opened. And he promptly barfed all over the tiles, narrowly missing Atobe's knees. Atobe wasn't sure of when he had gotten to his knees in front of Ryoma anyway.

'Where am I?' Ryoma asked, looking confused.

Atobe replied slowly, 'Your apartment.'

'Oh.'

Atobe then voiced his question. '...Were you the one to finish the bottle of headache pills?'

'Yes.'

'How many did you eat?'

'...I'm not exactly sure.'

Atobe full out gaped. 'What do you mean, you're not sure?'

Ryoma shrugged, looking a bit pale. 'I had a headache, so I popped a few-'

'A few?' Atobe interrupted incredulously, but Ryoma continued as if he hadn't heard him.

'But they didn't help, so I just finished off-'

'_Are you insane, Echizen_?' Atobe shouted.

Ryoma flinched visibly. '...I'm sorry.'

And now Atobe was bewildered. What was the boy apologising to him for?

Ryoma was looking at the floor, not meeting Atobe's eyes. 'I'll just clean this up then,' he mumbled, but he made no effort to get up.

A horrible thought came to Atobe. What if Ryoma had taken all of those pills on purpose, after hearing what the physiotherapist had to say? Ryoma had implied quite clearly that tennis was everything, and Tanaka had told him that he couldn't play tennis... A lump came up in Atobe's throat. Ryoma couldn't have possibly...

Atobe had to ask.

'Echizen... you weren't trying to kill yourself, right?'

Ryoma scoffed. 'Do you think I'm that stupid?' he asked, raising an eyebrow, a smirk falling into place easily on his face. But then his face fell again, and his next statement was low. 'I might as well have though.'

'What do you mean?' Atobe thundered, stunned.

'It's not as if there's anything worth living for now,' Ryoma answered, a twisted smile on his features.

'That's not true!' Atobe protested.

'It isn't?' Ryoma opposed, the twisted smile replied by a sad one.

Atobe shook his head, a good answer formulated in his mind. 'It's not. You've got me. And all of your friends. And your family too. Don't we matter more than tennis?'

Ryoma looked Atobe straight in the eye. 'But I don't play tennis any more,' he said softly. 'Why would they stay my friends?' And Ryoma looked like he actually believed in what he was staying.

Atobe couldn't help but laugh.

'What's so funny?' Ryoma immediately retorted.

'As if your friends would leave you for something as petty as that,' Atobe replied, smiling.

Ryoma tilted his head slightly, and asked, 'And how would you know that?'

Atobe chuckled. 'Because I'm one of them, Ryoma. So quit moping, would you?'

Ryoma smiled, and stood up, holding on to the counter for support. Taking a few paper towels to wipe up his mess, he commented, 'Atobe?'

'Yeah?'

'That was really cheesy.'

'...Oh, shut up.'

**x tsuzuku**

See, the ending seems overtly cheesy, but I can't take it out somehow. Drop a review and tell me what you think? -awinchan


	17. Imperative Confrontation

**Idyllic Dystopia**

I think I'm making this story into some emo-ish thing. I want to smash my hand against the wall the way Garyuu does in GS4, but not in the same cool-ish manner.

But onto actual TeniPuri related things. Another chapter, finished! Tada.

**x Imperative Confrontation **

It had become a routine of sorts. Atobe would ring Ryoma's doorbell at an ungodly hour, they would yell and complain at each other, and then Atobe would drive Ryoma to Seishun. After, Ryoma would be picked up by Atobe, and they would go to a 'decent' restaurant, meaning one that did not cost more than the average man's salary for a month, but also one that did not sell heart-attacks-on-a-bun. Then, the two would retire to their respective apartments, Atobe to his penthouse and Ryoma to Nanako's flat. The two had fallen into a grudging friendship somehow, and all was fine between the two.

But the same could not be said about Ryoma and his previous teammates.

'Echizen, why won't you just _come_ to practice?' Momo said for the umpteenth time, trying Ryoma's patience. Ryoma had, as of yet, not snapped, simply answering with the same sentence he did all the other times.

'I don't want to.'

'Yeah, ochibi-chan, don't you want to play tennis with your senpai-tachi?' Eiji said, elbowing the younger boy with a grin.

Momo and Eiji had decided that it was their duty as good senpais to attempt to convince Ryoma to come back to tennis practice, and had taken to bothering Ryoma in the morning before classes started in his classroom, during lunch, after classes when Ryoma was leaving the school, and sometimes during classes as well, when Momo or Eiji was skipping class.

'I don't want to,' Ryoma repeated tiredly. He poked at his bento as he sat on the roof. Atobe had taken it upon himself to get his chefs (in plural, Ryoma had found out) to make Ryoma a lunch as well, saying that if Ryoma had some 'actual nutrition', he would grow. Ryoma wasn't _that_ short. But he had still ended up with a Japanese bento stuffed to the top with French cuisine. He wasn't sure how the hell it worked, or how the hell it would taste if he actually got around to sticking some of the ... nutrition into his mouth.

'Echizen, why don't you want to play tennis?'

That was a frequent question too, but Ryoma's answer for it was the same - though it wasn't the truth.

'I don't want to.'

_I don't want to_. Every time Ryoma said it, he wanted to scream. He _wanted_ to play tennis, he needed it, he _craved _it. But he couldn't. And he wasn't going to tell anybody that if he could avoid it - he didn't need anybody looking down on him or pitying him.

'Ochibiiii-'

'Eiji, I think you've bothered Echizen enough.'

A new voice. Ryoma looked up from his bento to see a smiling Fuji.

Eiji pouted cutely. 'But Fujiko, Ryoma doesn't want to play tennis with us!'

Fuji continued to smile. 'So why do you keep on asking him if he wants to or not? It isn't likely that his answer would change in the span of five minutes, is it?' Fuji sat himself directly next to Ryoma, their knees just barely touching. He took out his own bento and starting eating sushi, a bit of wasabi green quite apparent in them.

Ryoma felt immediately relieved inwardly; the interrogation had been becoming quite the bore.

Suddenly, Ryoma's pocket started ringing. Or rather, the cell phone in his pocket did. Taking it out, he flipped it open and said, 'What?'

He heard Momo say beside him with a tinge of envy, 'That phone is way better than mine.'

Ryoma almost snorted; he had gotten the phone from Atobe because he had wanted to make sure Ryoma 'wouldn't make ore-sama wait, you brat', or something along the lines. Trust Atobe to buy one of the more expensive cell phones.

'I'll be a bit late today.'

Ryoma recognised Atobe's voice right away. ''Kay then,' Ryoma drawled, hanging up. He put the phone back into his pocket.

'Who was that, ochibi?' Eiji asked curiously.

Ryoma rolled his eyes. 'Nobody important, anyway.'

x

Fuji, sitting directly next to Ryoma, watched intently as Ryoma drew his phone out from his pocket and answered.

He couldn't help but feel the slightest dismay for some reason upon seeing the caller ID on Ryoma's phone - Atobe Keigo.

'What?'

Fuji chuckled quietly. It seemed so _Ryoma_-like to answer the phone with a simple, rude 'what'.

''Kay then,' Ryoma said a few seconds later, hanging up and sliding the phone back into his pocket.

The conversation drifted to idle banter between Momo and Eiji, but Fuji sat quietly, watching the olive-haired green boy stare silently at his bento, not eating at all.

If Ryoma didn't eat, he wouldn't be able to keep up his energy level.

Fuji worried about him.

x

Yawning quietly, Ryoma walked about the empty school. There wasn't much to do. The library had closed already and if he went outside, he'd want to go look at the tennis courts. Ryoma had been waiting for at least an _hour_. How late did Atobe consider _a bit late_? Ryoma would have quite a few words to say to the self-obsessed diva, none of which were complimentary.

Ryoma's phone made a sharp beep. Taking it out, Ryoma noticed that the phone's batteries were near dead. Another beep. They were dead. Damn. He'd have to go outside to wait for Atobe so he'd know when Atobe arrived - or maybe he would just stay inside the school and make Atobe wait. See how _he_ liked it.

The capped boy's patience was wearing thin; he wasn't accustomed to waiting for anybody. No, it was usually he who was late most of the time, for matches, for appointments, for school... For everything that he could be late for, really. He never was a punctual person.

...But Atobe _was_ paying for food afterwards. Ryoma sighed and left the school through the entrance he was most familiar with - the one that led to the tennis courts.

'Hey, it's Echizen.'

Ryoma wheeled around upon hearing his name, to see a few leering students.

He racked his memory, trying to fish up some names. He couldn't. Raising an eyebrow, he asked, 'Who are you?'

'You brat!' the tallest of the three said. 'I'm Arai! Your _senpai_.'

Arai. Vaguely familiar. Ryoma then smirked. 'Ah. You were the one I beat in a tennis match when you tried to trick some freshmen, right?'

Arai immediately flushed. 'So what? Don't see _you_ playing tennis now, do I? And why aren't you? You were happy enough to take a regular spot from us before, so why don't you do it now?'

'I don't want to.' If Ryoma could sleep ten minutes for every time he had said that sentence...

'Why not?' Arai shoved him forcefully in the chest, making the two students standing around him laugh. 'I bet that's why you ran away - left Seigaku to lose for the other two years, huh? Thought yourself too _good_ for our school.'

'Wait...' Ryoma felt suddenly breathless. 'What do you mean we lost?'

'Didn't know?' one of the other students said scornfully. 'The year after you left, we didn't even make it to the Nationals. We had been doing so well for one year, and then we were just gone.'

'We were laughed at for months by the other school,' the last student said angrily.

'What does that have to do with me?' Ryoma said a bit rudely; he had never understood the need for tact. 'What do you want me to do?'

'We want to _win_,' Arai said harshly. He looked nothing like the too-smug senpai that he had been when Ryoma first met him. 'Don't think yourself _better_ than the rest of us just 'cause you know a few special tennis tricks.'

'I don't,' Ryoma said truthfully. He wasn't better than them. At least they could _play_ tennis.

The trio didn't take his words too well. 'Don't be so rude to your senpai!' Arai said, shoving Ryoma again, this time making Ryoma fall to the ground.

'Not so strong off the court, are you?' one of the boys said tauntingly.

Ryoma didn't fight back. Ryoma _couldn't_ fight back. He simply stared back defiantly.

'Not getting back up?' the other asked, smirking.

Ryoma said snarkily, 'Why would I get up just to talk to you? You're not worth it.'

'Why you-'

Arai raised his hand.

Ryoma stared back unflinchingly, but the blow never came.

'What the _fuck_ do you think you are doing?'

All three of the standing students' heads whipped around to see a Atobe Keigo, his almost-always-there smirk replaced by a furious countenance that Ryoma had never seen before.

'Atobe Keigo?' Arai asked, almost in awe.

'You,' Atobe started angrily, 'are not fit to say my name. Come on, Ryoma, let's go.' Atobe stuck out his hand, which Ryoma readily took. 'I will be filing charges against you for raising a hand-'

'Shut up, Monkey King,' Ryoma said instantly. 'It's not that big of a deal-'

'What are you saying?' Atobe said, now raging. 'That idiot was about to hit you-'

'So?' Ryoma's voice cut clear and sharp.

'...What do you mean, "so"?' Atobe said slowly. He looked at the younger boy, and suddenly recoiled.

Ryoma sighed. Atobe was an idiot. 'So what? Let's go, like you said.'

Ryoma let go of Atobe's hand pointedly and headed for the front of the school.

x

'So?'

Ryoma's voice rang through Atobe's ears over and over again as they sat in the limo, silent. Neither of them had anything they could say. Not for lack of things to say on Atobe's part though; Atobe had quite a few things he wanted to say. He just wasn't sure how to phrase them.

He wasn't sure of what Ryoma had meant by his simple answer of 'so'. Did he mean, 'so what if Arai was going to hit me?' Did he mean that it didn't matter as long as he didn't hit him? ...Or that it wouldn't have mattered, even if he had hit him?

There had been so much emptiness in the boy's eyes too, as if Ryoma was just a hollow shell of nothing that simply moved mechanically. It had been enough to make Atobe baulk.

Atobe stole a glance at the younger teen, whose head was facing the window, staring out.

'It really didn't matter.'

Atobe wouldn't have caught what Ryoma had said if the limousine hadn't been completely quiet.

'What do you mean?' Atobe asked for the second time that day.

Ryoma stared right at Atobe, turning away from the window and directing his golden eyes at Atobe's blue ones.

'So what if I had gotten hit?' Ryoma said expressionlessly. 'I deserved it.'

'You didn't deserve to be hit!' Atobe said, feeling a bit horrified. 'What are you saying, Ryoma?'

'Did we really lose the two years that I left?' Ryoma said blankly. Atobe immediately knew that he was talking about Seishun Gakuen.

Should he tell him? 'Yes,' Atobe confirmed, and saw Ryoma's head drop just a tad, though his eyes still bored into his own.

'It _was_ my fault.'

Ryoma's tone was flat, but his eyes told another story, his tempestuous golden eyes full of unspoken emotion.

'We were picking up my mother before going to see a tennis match,' Ryoma said in the same tone. 'I had really wanted to go, and my dad said it'd be fine. And then everything went wrong. There was the car accident, my legs were messed up, Seigaku lost their championship. It was all my fault.'

Atobe was speechless. How could anyone actually blame himself for something that was an _accident_?

'I'm just a hassle to have around,' Ryoma continued vacuously. 'My mom has to pay a lot to go to the private hospital clinics, and I take up space in Nanako-san's apartment. All I do is bother people, and it brings them more harm than good.'

There was a slight pause, but Atobe didn't dare interrupt. Ryoma didn't even seem to be talking to Atobe any more, seeming to be more talking to himself.

'I wish I was dead.'

Atobe didn't even notice when the limousine pulled to a stop, and Ryoma stepped out of the limo, but not without one last sentence.

'Don't call me Ryoma. My dad called me that.'

But then he was gone, leaving Atobe confused as to what he should be doing or if he had done something wrong, but still wondering: since when had he called Echizen 'Ryoma'?

x

Ryoma really should think his actions through more often. It wasn't that his sense of direction was bad, but rather he didn't know where the hell he was. Atobe _always_ insisted on going to eat at random places that were far from Nanako's apartment and that Ryoma had never gone to. So Ryoma simply walked quickly in any direction that led away from the limousine with its door hanging open.

He didn't need to see Atobe's hurt and confused eyes.

Ryoma didn't understand, really, why he had told all of that to Atobe. Maybe he had just kept his thoughts inside himself for so long that he had to tell them to anybody who'd sit long enough to listen.

But Atobe had looked hurt for some reason, after Ryoma had told him to not to call him by his given name - but why? It wasn't as if he and Atobe were familiar or anything. They were simply ...

Ryoma wasn't exactly sure what they were.

He sighed, though nobody was near to hear him. Giving a glance back, there was nobody running after him.

He had almost expected Atobe to be running up to him, looking annoyed because Ryoma was an idiot or a brat or some other insult Atobe came up with.

Ryoma couldn't help but feel the slightest twinge of disappointment.

'Echizen-kun?'

The voice was not Atobe's, but was still recognizable.

'Fuji-senpai?'

'Let's have a _talk_, shall we?' Fuji smiled at him in all his tensai glory.

'Sure.'

Ryoma had an underlying feeling that he would come to regret his decision.

**x tsuzuku**

Now, I think I'm making Ryoma way too emo and such - but that will be quickly remedied! I am coming to the end of this story in a but a few more chapters, I believe xD At least, I hope. This story has drawn on too long anyway XD

But reviews would be perfectly lovely. Reviews make my disillusioned world go round. -awinchan


	18. Unanticipated Impasse

**Idyllic Dystopia**

Wow, 300 reviews XD Thank you to everybody who's reviewed or alerted or favourited this! And here is the next chapter. I'm sorry about not getting a chapter out last week, but this chapter was giving me a pain. (And it still does now.)

But you'll see why for yourself, I think.

**x Unanticipated Impasse**

The silence was absolutely unbearable, but Fuji was making no move to break it. He was content with waiting for the inevitable question.

It had been five minutes already. He and Ryoma were sitting on a bench at the public tennis courts, a perfect place for a confrontation, Fuji thought. And indeed it was; the brunet could see the shorter boy's tension through his clenched fists and confused golden eyes that had seen too much pain, no matter how much of it Fuji believed was self-inflicted.

'What _is_ it?' Ryoma finally blurted out, making Fuji smile widely. It had taken a while.

'Can't a senpai be worried about the welfare of his kouhai?' Fuji asked innocently. Ryoma's eyes narrowed.

'A senpai can worry about the welfare of his kouhai _during_ school hours, Fuji-senpai,' Ryoma said resignedly. 'A senpai who was worried about his kouhai wouldn't ask him to sit on a bench without any purpose, especially when the kouhai had better things to be doing.'

Resignation was not a good sign, Fuji noted, but replied cheerfully, 'I _do_ have a purpose though, and do you _really_ have better things to be doing than conversing with your worried senpai?'

And it was true. Honestly enough, it had been surprising to find Ryoma out on the streets all by himself, but it could _not_ have been more providential for the tensai anyway, as he had been wanting to talk to the younger boy for a while already. The boy was wasting away slowly, and Fuji _wasn't_ going to let that happen. Fuji saw past those golden eyes that were full of innocent confusion to the turmoil within.

Maybe Fuji was delving too deep. It was normal for someone to be traumatised after an accident, and what Ryoma had been in was certainly an accident. Maybe Fuji was thinking too much, and Ryoma was perfectly fine.

But Fuji loved to meddle, and this was just too good of a chance for him not to interfere.

'So what _is it_?' Ryoma asked, the slightest tone of exasperation in his voice. Fuji's smile slipped off of his face, and his cerulean eyes opened to stare at Ryoma intently.

'Why aren't you playing tennis any more?'

x

Fuji-senpai was a tensai and all that, Ryoma thought to himself, but he could be _really stupid_.

'Fuji-senpai,' Ryoma said patiently (which took quite a bit of effort), 'I am a _pa-ra-ple-gic_. I'm sure you know what that means.' So maybe it hadn't come out as patient as it should have.

'Your paraplegia is _mild_, Echizen-kun,' Fuji said, sounding much more patient than Ryoma had. 'You walk just fine, and your arms didn't suffer any, did they? Though I'm not sure about your _brain_.' The last part had been said lightly, but Ryoma gave a little shiver. 'Stop wallowing in your own self-pity.'

'I'm not _wallowing_!' Ryoma immediately rejoined, his voice a little higher than it had been before. 'I can't play tennis any more, okay?'

'Can't or won't, Echizen-kun?' Fuji immediately replied back, his voice a bit harsher. 'Think over your answer before blurting it out.'

Ryoma shut his mouth, stopping himself from replying 'I just said I _can't_, didn't I?' to 'think over' his answer. Wasn't it obvious that he couldn't?

But he couldn't open his mouth and actually say what he was thinking. It was like something was stopping him from speaking.

'You wouldn't be able to play at your old level, that's for sure,' Fuji said softly, 'but who's to say you can't play? You'd still be better than most people if you had to play in a wheelchair, _Ryoma_. I think there's another reason you won't - not can't - play.'

There was something in Ryoma's throat that refused to budge.

'You're acting as if the world _revolves around you_,' Fuji continued. 'Oh, everybody should pity you because you've fallen so far from your throne, and you can never get it back. Your dad's dead, it's all your fault, and now your life sucks. But perhaps, before you look for pity, you should stand back up on your own two feet.'

Fuji's blue eyes were challenging. 'And try to get your throne back yourself.'

x

Invalids shouldn't be _allowed_ to move so fast, Atobe grumbled inwardly.

Maybe he would have been able to catch up to Ryoma if he hadn't gaped like a fool from inside the limousine, but how could Atobe not? What kind of child - no, young adult, Atobe corrected himself - would say that he wanted to be _dead_? And ... Atobe didn't really realise that he was calling Ryoma 'Ryoma'. It had been more a slip of the tongue than anything else.

And now Atobe was trawling the plebeian streets, searching for a sign of a capped teenaged boy.

He didn't understand why his feet had brought him to the street tennis courts. Why would Ryoma go to a place that would only drag up bad memories of things lost? But nonetheless, Atobe was standing at the street tennis courts, where his eyes caught sight of an unusual occurrence.

Fuji and Ryoma were sitting together on a bench.

It wasn't really out of the ordinary to see the two together, Atobe thought, as they were from the same school and had been part of the same club. It wasn't that strange.

But he found himself running up to the two anyway.

'Ry-Echizen!' Atobe shouted, rectifying his statement halfway through. Both Fuji and Ryoma turned to him, Ryoma looking rather dazed and Fuji quite triumphant. There was something predatory in Fuji's blue eyes that Atobe could see easily, making him shiver unconsciously.

Ryoma still said nothing, though Fuji did walk up to Atobe with a pleasant smile and closed eyes. 'Ah, Atobe. How are you?'

'Great,' Atobe replied distractedly. 'Echizen, are you okay?'

'Why wouldn't he be?' Fuji said cheerfully, answering the question for Ryoma. 'We were just having a nice chat. Well, Ryoma, think about what I've said, okay? Good night.' Fuji left the two alone at the courts, whistling a happy tune that was at complete odds with the current atmosphere.

'Are you okay, Echizen?' Atobe repeated, not trusting Fuji's answer.

Ryoma said nothing, staring blankly out into the distance.

'Let's go eat dinner,' Atobe said, walking up to Ryoma and tugging on his sleeve lightly. 'I'm sure you're hungry after fleeing all the way here.'

Ryoma nodded dumbly, and Atobe pulled out his cell phone to call. He punched in a few numbers, but didn't hear the usual beeps. His phone had run out of batteries. He checked all his other phones. All dead, even his emergency one.

'Echizen, pass me your phone.'

'It's dead,' Ryoma mumbled back.

Atobe sighed. Why did these things happen to him? He looked up at the sky, which was a cloudy grey, signalling rain. 'I suppose we'll just have to call up a taxi.'

'That's great,' Ryoma replied distractedly, clearly not giving any attention to the conversation at all. And after Atobe had gone through the trouble of finding him too.

'You could get up now, Echizen,' Atobe chided, and Ryoma stood up robotically, following Atobe off of the street tennis courts. What was _wrong _with him?

Atobe waved his hand at the street, spotting a taxi, which swerved to a dangerous stop in front of the two. Atobe opened the door, motioning for Ryoma to get in. Ryoma stepped in silently.

Getting in as well, Atobe stated, 'Please drive us to...' Atobe paused. The restaurant he wanted to go to wasn't that well-known, with a VIP list of patrons. 'Just drop us off at Ueno Park.'

The driver said nothing, driving at a speed that seemed rather unsafe. Atobe would have to remember the car's licence plate and call up the taxi company to complain later.

'Echizen, what were you and Fuji talking about?' Atobe asked, trying to strike up a conversation.

Ryoma shrugged.

Atobe paused, but Ryoma gave no clarification. Before Atobe could complain, the driver veered hazardously, almost getting onto the wrong lane.

'Be more careful, would you?' Atobe said, irritated. He didn't have time to deal with commoners who couldn't drive. Rain started to fall, dripping down the vehicle's windows.

The driver answered slowly, 'Some danger would do ya good, I think...' The car veered again.

If Atobe had been paying more attention to his surroundings and not to Ryoma, he would have noticed the slight smell of alcohol coming from the driver's seat.

He would have asked to get out of the taxi immediately.

And the next red light wouldn't have be driven through.

'What the hell are you doing?' Atobe shouted, but the driver gave no answer.

There was sudden honking, screeching, and screaming.

And all went black.

**x tsuzuku**

Reviews about this chapter would be lovely. Love it? Hate it? Want to kill me for it? -awinchan


	19. Uncomplicated Denouement

**Idyllic Dystopia**

Surprise, surprise - an early update! I've finally reached the last chapter for this thing (excluding the epilogue) and I must say it's been a long, long while xD I hope this chapter is adequate and all - I haven't actually ended a multi-chaptered story before XD But please, do read on.

**x Uncomplicated Denouement**

It was bright. Light shined on his eyelids, making him clench them tighter together. For some reason, he didn't want to open his eyes. He was safe with his eyes closed, hiding them from the world around him. Though he knew that he couldn't keep his eyes closed forever, he could prolong his peace for just a little while longer. But it was too bright. He moved his hands to cover his eyes, not wanting to open his eyes just yet, thus catching the attention of one blue-eyed brunet.

'Once again, it seems you've landed yourself in a bit of a spot.'

He opened one eye stormy with confusion tentatively to see the smiling visage of Fuji Syusuke beaming down at him, though the emotion gathered from the smile was not a very friendly one. He opened the other eye, equally unsettled by mystification. 'Huh?'

Ryoma was lying on a bed that wasn't his own, one much harder than his own with a thinner blanket and a less fluffy pillow. He glanced about with his two open eyes, not moving from his place on the bed. The room around him was clinical and white, almost like a...

'I'm sure you're quite familiar with hospitals by now,' Fuji commented, twirling a lock of hair around his finger. 'You've certainly been in and out of them a lot, haven't you?'

'Why am I in a hospital?' Ryoma immediately demanded, bolting upright and bringing quite a bit of pain to his lower back, but he wasn't too concerned about that. The more pressing matter was why he was in a hospital - and why he didn't know why he was in a hospital in the first place. He couldn't remember what had exactly happened... There were vague tendrils of memory tugging at his mind, bits and pieces that looked like they could make a picture if only he knew how they fit together, but he couldn't connect them. A conversation with Fuji, getting into a cab, and some sort of screeching pandemonium... he could not find the way they all interlocked.

'You've only sustained mild injuries, so you should know that quite well, Echizen. It's not as if you've gotten amnesia,' Fuji said lightly, sounding to all the world like a casual, unaffected visitor - but Ryoma knew better. 'I mean, if you would care to look to your right...' His voice trailed off.

Ryoma turned his head slowly to his right, but all he saw was a bed with somebody in it. Another tendril was added.

'It's the occupant of the bed that's important, Echizen,' Fuji hinted in a voice not so light.

Getting up with a strange feeling of dread, Ryoma's bare feet moved him across the cold hospital floor mechanically so he could look at the only other occupant of the hospital room. Once his eyes fell upon the body in the bed, Ryoma's mouth let out an involuntary gasp.

The light brown locks and the dark blue eyes hidden before eyelids. The pale face with its indiscernible expression, strangely lacking its usual smirk. The person was deathly still, the only sign of life being the slight movement of the chest as the young man breathed.

'A profound state of unconsciousness, sometimes resulted from immense head trauma from something like a car accident.'

Ryoma, skin paler than usual, spoke to Fuji, golden eyes fixated on the resting figure. 'What do you mean?' he asked quietly.

'That, Ryoma, is the definition of a coma.'

Ryoma felt the world slowly slipping away from underneath his feet as the strings of his memory tied together, falling into a state of unconsciousness not unlike that of Atobe Keigo's, though Ryoma's was much more temporary.

xxx

'Hey, Echizen, you have to eat.' Momo prodded his best friend, who did not turn back to look at him. Ryoma's bento had been open for the last forty minutes, but it remained untouched. Now, Momo understood that sometimes people could be not hungry - sometimes. Rarely. But Ryoma just wasn't one of those people, and Momo couldn't understand what Ryoma was doing, letting that bento go to waste.

'Not hungry,' Ryoma said blankly, staring off at something that Momo could not see.

Momo would have insisted that Ryoma eat had Momo not been hungry himself. 'I'll help myself, then.'

Ryoma paid no mind, still staring off at one point on the horizon that nobody but himself could see.

xxx

'Echizen-kun, could you please read the first paragraph on page 145?'

The teacher had long given up on trying to teach Ryoma _anything _in English class, but he couldn't very well have him sleeping. It was disrespectful.

Ryoma gave him no answer.

'Echizen-kun, could you please pay attention?'

One of the students next to Ryoma shook him awake, and Ryoma stared at the teacher with emotionless eyes.

The teacher sighed and repeated himself. 'Echizen-kun, could you please read the first paragraph on page 145?'

'No.'

The answer was short, but generated quite the commotion from the class.

Frowning, the teacher stared at Ryoma, who looked much too tired - not his usual not-getting-enough-sleep tired, but a more worn out kind of tired. Like he had given up.

'Echizen-kun-' the teacher stated warningly, only to be interrupted by the scraping of a chair against the tile floor.

'I'm going home,' Ryoma announced quietly. 'I'm not feeling well.'

And with that he was out the door.

xxx

'I don't know why I started calling you monkey king, really.'

Ryoma's mouth moved of its own accord, words spewing out of it because he didn't know what else he could do.

'You just looked a lot like a monkey, you and the rest of your Hyoutei subjects.'

His hands were at his sides, clenching and unclenching for lack of anything to hold onto.

'You commanded them about, like you were the ruler of them all, and you looked so ridiculous. That hulk of a boy - Kabaji, was it? - just listened to your demands.'

There was a small smile on his face as he reminisced.

'It's been a while, hasn't it?

xxx

Rinko watched her son with worried eyes, waiting outside the hospital room's closed door. She didn't want to open the door, feeling like it would disturb some moment. Visiting hours would be ending soon.

The door quietly opened, and Ryoma walked down the hallway, not sparing a glance for his mother.

'Ryoma...' Rinko started, but Ryoma continued walking, his feet moving him along in one direction whilst his mind stayed obstinately by one comatose patient's bedside.

xxx

He wasn't sure of why his feet had brought him here. Hadn't he suffered enough already? Nevertheless, he was standing on the tennis courts.

There were some elementary school kids playing right now, and Ryoma walked slowly towards them, and found himself frozen. What was he doing? He couldn't play! Why was he even here? He wanted to go and retreat back to his safety zone, but he heard a voice ringing in his head.

_'Why aren't you playing tennis any more?'_

Fuji's accusing voice repeated in his mind like a broken record, even though Ryoma was sure he knew the answers. Ryoma couldn't play tennis, which is why he wasn't playing. It was obvious, wasn't it?

But Ryoma stood on the tennis courts anyway.

Ryoma couldn't play.

_'Can't or won't, Echizen-kun?' _Fuji's voice gently rebutted him, even in his mind.

He was an invalid.

'Your paraplegia is mild, Echizen-kun.'

And indeed, Ryoma could still walk, he could still function, he could still live. His arms were perfectly fine as well.

But Ryoma couldn't play. He just _couldn't_.

Once again, Fuji's voice repeated. _'Can't or won't, Echizen-kun?'_

All of a sudden, Ryoma saw his father flashing before his eyes, his father whom he had always played tennis with for so long, his one real opponent, his first reason for playing - whom he would play no more.

He remembered how his father had first taught him to hold a racquet, laughing at him for not getting it right the first try. There had been all those afternoons when his dad played tennis with him, encouraging him in his annoying way to do better, to surpass, to _succeed_.

And then Ryoma had failed him, somewhere along the way.

'Onii-chan, are you okay?' a boy asked, looking at Ryoma with huge, concerned eyes.

Ryoma made up his mind. 'Can I borrow a racquet?'

The kids conferred amongst themselves, and one handed a racquet over.

'A tennis ball too?'

That was handed over as well.

Ryoma put his feet in the right position and held the racquet in his right hand, bouncing the tennis ball against the ground with his left.

He hadn't held a racquet since the accident, but it felt like it belonged, filling the empty space that had needed something to grasp onto.

Then he let the ball fly, slamming into it with the racquet, making the ball twist over the net and crash against the court with a thump. He bent his knees tentatively, and did a test jog to the net. It wasn't as fast as before, but it would do.

'Who wants to play a match?'

_'And try to get your throne back yourself.' _

Echizen Ryoma was back.

xxx

Ryoma walked purposefully to the tennis courts, ignoring all eyes except for those of one bespectacled brunet.

'Tezuka-buchou, I want to join the tennis club.'

xxx

'I've been doing better now,' Ryoma said softly, one of his hands resting on soft brown curls.

'Obviously not up to standard, but I'm doing fine,' Ryoma continued. 'Tanaka-sensei says that if I continue with my exercises the way I am now, I'll be able to regain more strength in my legs.'

'I can't wait until you wake up again to play with me.'

Ryoma felt his eyes closing, and he let his head fall onto the bed's railing, wondering what he would possibly do if Atobe never woke up, and at the same time wondering when Atobe had become so important to him.

But it didn't matter, and Ryoma let himself fall into well-deserved sleep, his dreams full of brown strands of hair just out of his reach, long slender fingers that reached out to him but he just couldn't touch.

xxx

'Do you think he's going to get better soon, doctor?'

'I can't be sure. I'm sorry, Echizen-san, but it would take some sort of miracle, probably. Some people just one day wake up from their coma very randomly. I've heard of cases when people, after many years-'

'I can't have it take many years,' Rinko said, distraught. 'My son has practically lived in the hospital since Atobe-kun was placed here, and I worry for the both of them.'

'You'll just have to hope for the best.'

Both the doctor and Rinko looked at the two teenaged boys in the room, both sleeping serenely. Rinko hoped dearly that they would both wake up soon.

xxx

'Ah, Echizen, how are you doing?' Fuji asked cheerfully, a bouquet of flowers in his hands.

'What are you doing here, Fuji-senpai?' Ryoma asked warily.

'Making sure you don't end up in the same state as dear Atobe,' Fuji said simply. He placed the bouquet on the table next to Atobe's bed. 'So. Would you grace me with the pleasure of a date?'

Ryoma's eyes sneaked a glance at Atobe, making Fuji chuckle. 'I assure you, Atobe will be fine without you for a few hours. Please, Ryoma, get out of this room. Staying in the hospital too long can kill you.'

There was a sudden onslaught of emotions in Ryoma's eyes, and Fuji noticed his slip up. 'Ah, bad choice of words,' he immediately amended. 'You do need a bit of fresh air anyhow.'

Ryoma relented, but not without staring at Atobe's frozen body.

xxx

Ryoma opened his mouth, and closed it again. What was he supposed to say? Fuji's eyes were hopeful, but Ryoma couldn't do anything but shoot them down. And Ryoma finally, finally knew why. All those disappointments he had felt before when Atobe had left him, or let him down... he understood them now.

'I'm sorry, Fuji-senpai, I can't. It's not that...' Ryoma's apology faded, Ryoma not sure of what to say. He hadn't ever been in this sort of situation before.

'You can't forget him, can you.' Fuji's cerulean eyes were full of disappointment.

It wasn't a question, but Ryoma shook his head anyway. And Ryoma couldn't. It seemed that Fuji had understood this before Ryoma had, but what did it matter as long as Ryoma had understood in the end? He had to get back immediately.

To tell Atobe that he loved him.

'I'm going back,' Ryoma said quietly. Fuji didn't need to ask where Ryoma was going back to, simply watching as Ryoma left Fuji by himself, oddly alone as he stood in the bustling metropolis of Tokyo.

xxx

'Keigo.'

That was the first time that Ryoma had said Atobe's given name aloud. It had a nice ring to it.

'I don't think you can hear this...'

Ryoma would have felt dumb talking to Atobe whilst he was comatose, but somehow, he had a feeling that Atobe was listening, somehow, somewhere.

'Please wake up. I have to tell you something, and I need to be _sure_ that you hear it.'

But there was no response, and Ryoma lowered his head to Atobe's chest and started crying. All the problems started flooding to the top of Ryoma's mind: how some idiots at the tennis club had laughed at him, noticing how he really wasn't as good as before, how his marks had been falling and his teachers had noticed, how his mother kept on giving him those motherly glances that only his mother could pull off...

But none of those mattered much. Not as much as Atobe lying on the bed as if death had already taken him.

Ryoma would get back to the top of the tennis world. He would show them all that he was able to get over his accident -as Atobe would, Ryoma was sure. He would - not forget his father - but let him go, and continue on with his life - and earn back the respect that he was sure his father would have lost for him if his father could have seen how morose Ryoma had been acting.

And most of all, he would be waiting.

Waiting for when Atobe woke up, with a smile on his face and a racquet in his hand, waiting for as long as it would take.

Raising his head, Ryoma took Atobe's hands into his own.

There he sat in the hospital room, his little dystopia with its suffocating white walls that threatened to contain him, the lingering smell of pain and broken dreams from those who had stayed in the room before, and the steady mechanical hum of the machines in the room keeping its occupant alive.

But the occupant of the room was all that mattered, and here, Ryoma's hands in Atobe's own, Ryoma had found his arcadia, his idyllic dystopia.

And he would wait here until he and Atobe could leave together, to find their own utopia.

**x owari**

The end, I suppose. XD I'm actually very happy with ending this - and the epilogue will be up in two weeks - though I don't think it'll be more than 1000 words.

How did you like this story? Was it nice, disappointing, badly ended, whatever? I'd love to hear your thoughts and I'll reply to every review on this last (not really xD) chapter.

Thank you for sticking with me for this long xD -awinchan


	20. coda

**Idyllic Dystopia**

The final chapter. It seems like so long ago that I had started this story, and ... I am actually very glad to have it finished XD It's just a short epilogue to add on to the last chapter, which didn't have the happiest ending xD

**x coda**

Ryoma watched the tennis players, feeling irritated. Some of the _grips_ - the first thing that any tennis player should have learned - that they had were a bit off, and they were supposed to be at _national_ level. He wanted to yell at them and tell them that there had been _junior high school students playing better than them_. But he refrained from doing so.

The job came with quite the high salary, and Ryoma was not willing to give that up yet. He needed the money to pay for his apartment, even though he wasn't in it over half the time anyway.

'Oi, you two!' Ryoma shouted, pointing at one of the doubles teams, who were volleying back and forth carelessly. 'Stop slacking off!'

Really, the team had no discipline at all. Did they have no drive to win?

'And you!' Ryoma continued to shout, now pointing at their supposed _top_ player, who was sitting on the bench. 'Go run ten laps!' Tezuka was _way_ better than them, Ryoma was sure, but Tezuka had gone on to become a doctor so that he could save people. Ryoma couldn't help but agree that Tezuka had a good point, thinking immediately of one person that he would give anything to help.

He had been training the team for a year now, and had watched them improve - though they still sucked, in Ryoma's opinion. He himself had not been able to play professional tennis, but had decided that he would help others who wanted to play. He was sincerely regretting that decision now as he looked at the hapless tennis players.

'Ah, Echizen-san, come over here for a minute or two, would you please?'

Ryoma turned to face the team's manager, who had a wide smile on his face. Ryoma nodded and followed the manager a little ways off the courts.

'How do you think they're doing?' the manager asked seriously, smile slipping off like water.

Ryoma replied bluntly, 'They could be doing better, Hayashi-san.' Not could be, Ryoma corrected himself mentally, but _should_ be.

The manager sighed. 'Of course they could. They're all slacking off because they don't think they have a chance to win. Could you motivate them? Show them some of your-'

'No,' Ryoma said bluntly, frowning. 'If they don't have the motivation, they shouldn't play at all.' And they really had no discipline at all either. Ryoma had once told them about the wrist weights that he had worn before and they had outright laughed at the notion of wearing them, the idiots. To think that Japan had been reduced to sending dunderheads like these into the international tennis world...

'Echizen-san,' the manager started, 'you really don't mean that, right? These are all-'

'Players who should be trying harder,' Ryoma finished. If only they had even a quarter of the mindset of his old senpai Kaidoh... He sighed. 'I'm going to leave for today.'

'What?' Hayashi squawked. 'Practice hasn't ended yet!'

Ryoma shook his head. 'I don't see the point in staying here if they aren't going to put in the effort, Hayashi-san.' And it was obvious they weren't going to any time soon, Ryoma thought uncharitably.

With that, Ryoma left, intent on grabbing a nice meal - meaning a hamburger and Ponta, and then returning to the hospital - his usual routine.

However, he was stopped halfway through his burger eating when a classical ring tone sounded from his pocket.

Quickly finishing the burger he was eating, Ryoma pulled out his cell phone and flipped it open. 'Moshi mo-'

'Ryoma-san!' The breathless voice was that of ever-polite Nanako. It had to be something serious if Nanako had interrupted Ryoma. 'Come quick!'

'What?' Ryoma asked, bewildered.

'The hospital! He's awake!'

The phone slipped out of his hand and hit the ground, resulting in a thump and a nasty crack down the cell phone's screen, but Ryoma paid it no heed. Leaving it on the ground, he started running towards the hospital with legs that had been training in anticipation for this very moment when they would be most needed.

Flying in through the hospital doors, the receptionist paid no attention to him, so used to his coming in and out of the hospital by now, though she did raise her eyebrows a bit at his running. Ryoma went straight for the elevator, following his usual route to the hospital room, though the route this time would have a different finish point. At least, that was what Ryoma was hoping.

He soon found himself at the hospital room that he had frequented for so long to talk to somebody too comatose to reply.

'He's inside,' Rinko said softly, standing outside with Nanako and Atobe's mother, as if speaking too loud would break the magic. Ryoma nodded back.

He opened the door a crack, giving it a slight push so it opened the rest of the way itself. He took a step inside and readied himself for whatever he would face.

'Keigo?' he said hesitantly. It seemed too good to be true. After all those years...

And then he saw them. Those deep blue eyes that had stayed hidden beneath eyelids for too long, sharp and aware and completely open.

'You're back,' Ryoma whispered quietly, golden eyes staring into Atobe's own.

And before Ryoma could stop himself, he had walked over and kissed Atobe.

In the brief second following, Ryoma could feel Atobe's confusion as to what was happening, and Ryoma wondered if he should stop - if he should pull away. Then Atobe raised his arms awkwardly to wrap them around Ryoma's shoulders and began to kiss him back.

The kiss went on for a few more moments - or was it a minute, an hour, a day? Ryoma didn't know - before both pulled back.

Ryoma opened his mouth to tell Atobe what he had wanted to tell, all that he had held in for so long, all those things he had said to Atobe whilst he slept - but found that it was so _unnecessary_ now, so pointless. 'Everything is all right now,' he said simply.

Atobe echoed him, lips forming a slow smile. 'Everything is all right.'

And everything was.

**xxx**

And there's the end. You can expect a new chapter story to be up shortly, probably a FujiRyo or another Royal. If you have any questions or comments or complaints, all the reviews will (for once) be answered XD Thank you for sticking with me for this long. -awinchan


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